


We Could Be Heroes (When Hearts Like Ours Meet)

by wherehopelies



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Found Family, POWER RANGERS AU, emily is precious i dont make the rules, everything, poly!bellas, poor babies literally always almost dying but never do
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-14 08:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14132529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherehopelies/pseuds/wherehopelies
Summary: This is literally the plot of Power Rangers 2017 but with Staubechemily instead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to julia who watched power rangers just so i could yell about this au to her. she also is the research dept so if you like it go tell her @runningwithpadfoot.tumblr.com. if you dont like it then, nvm it's all my fault

_“Slut.”_

_“Bitch.”_

_“Homewrecker.”_

She hears them but pretends she doesn’t, acts like it doesn’t bother her. It does bother her, but only a little. And only a little because she deserves it.

She lifts her chin and sends their icy glares right back into their faces. Flipping her hair, she struts away.

Nobody can intimidate Stacie Conrad.

They can cut her off and call her names, but she’s going places, as soon as she gets the hell out of this tiny ass college town and moves on with her life.

//

Her apartment is shaking from a bass beat. She can feel it even with her headphones in when she enters. She yanks them out of her ears and unlocks the door as fast as she can.

“EMILY!”

The music - some pop song Aubrey likes but pretends she doesn’t - thumps through their shared living space even with Emily’s door closed.

Aubrey sighs and rubs her temples. She doesn’t have time for this. She has a paper and a report due this week, two midterms next week, and some research for a group project for which she knows her partners won’t pull their weight.

And her dad’s been texting constantly, asking about her grades and transfer applications.

Now is not the _time_.

“EMILY!” She stomps toward Emily’s room and manages to knock because for all her fury, she’s always polite, and personal boundaries are the one thing that makes this relationship _work_.

The door swings open, and there Emily stands, her eyes wide and a pair of sound-canceling headphones snug on her ears.

“AUBREY! HEY!” Emily beams. “LOOK AT MY FISH!”

Aubrey makes a beeline for Emily’s stereo and turns it down to an acceptable volume. Emily bounces over to the large fishtank in the corner of her room, pulling her headphones down around her neck.

“Em, please can you explain _why_ you were wearing headphones but listening to music through your speakers loud enough to get us evicted?”

Emily blinks rapidly. “Well it was loud and was hurting my ears. But Tupac likes when you play the music loud. I think he’s like those jellyfish on SpongeBob. They say some fish respond really well to music. I’ve only tried pop and 80s synth but next I’m going to play him classical and then maybe hip hop. Oh my God I should’ve played him Tupac. What was I thinking? Or maybe I should play him Biggie, that might get a better response? Hm. I doubt fish understand the intricacies of east coast west coast politics.”

She frowns and looks at the fish in the tank. Aubrey avoids glancing at him because she finds him horribly ugly.

“They certainly don’t. And Tupac needs to learn to enjoy music at an _acceptable_ volume.” She gives her roommate a pointed look that she’s sure will go over Emily’s head.

“It was for science,” Emily states, her eyes wide and cute and Aubrey feels her frustration breaking apart.

“Please play it quieter, Em. I don’t want us to get in trouble with the landlord.”

Emily nods eagerly. “Yes, ma’am, you got it.”

“Great. Thanks. Now please keep the music off. I have a lot of work to do.”

She starts back toward the kitchen where she’d left her bag, but Emily is quick at her heels. “Yep, can do. Umm but hey want to hang out tonight?”

“No. I just told you have I have a lot of work.”

Emily waves her hands in the air. “No yeah I got that. So it’s not really hanging out actually, I just need you for like ten minutes? I need a boost.”

Aubrey, who had just moved to grab her bag, halts mid-bend, her lips thinning in line.

“A boost? What do you mean, a boost?”

//

“Emily, you know I don’t condone - ” Aubrey grunts as Emily steps into her cradle hold and grips her shoulder “- you doing this.”

Emily grips the top of the fence, trying to avoid the sharp edges of the chain link. Aubrey propels her up slightly and she sticks her toe into one of the holes, scrambling up and swinging her leg over the top.

“Well, it’s not my fault they put up the fence. It never used to be here.”

“I didn’t like you coming over here even before the fence.”

Emily pushes herself up and over and slides down the other side and onto the picnic bench. She beams and spins around so she can see Aubrey through the fence. “Thanks for helping me anyway. You’re a good friend.”

Aubrey’s face is unreadable, but Emily’s used to that. It means Aubrey is thinking.Eventually she sighs, her hand gripping the fence next to Emily’s from the other side. “I know I said I have a lot of work to do, but call me if you need anything. You know this place isn’t safe. Only criminals and drug addicts come out here, Em.”

“I’m not a criminal or drug addict.”

Aubrey smiles slightly at that. “You’re breaking and entering right now so technically you are a criminal.”

Emily blinks. “Wow I guess you’re right. Good thing I look amazing in orange.”

She can tell Aubrey doesn’t like her joke by the way her eyes squint the smallest amount. That’s okay. Aubrey doesn’t like a lot of her jokes, or mostly she can’t tell if they’re jokes or not. She thinks it’s nice Aubrey doesn’t ever pretend to like them when she doesn’t because that’s lying and friends don’t lie.

Aubrey sighs. “Just call me, okay?”

“Yup.”

Then Emily waves and hops down off the picnic table, her feet landing square on the concrete. The pavement is damp with rain from earlier in the day, but the air is warm and humid. It’s a nice night. One of the nicer nights Emily’s experienced since she’s been coming out to the pool.

She likes it out here. It makes her feel closer to her mom.

Also the acoustics are really good, and Emily loves to sing.

So she does.

//

Stacie hears the singing before she sees the singer.

“ _I hate the headlines and the weather, I’m nineteen and I’m on fire…”_

She squeezes through the gap in the fence, careful not to drop the ampoule in her hand. That would be a disaster.

She skirts around the edge of the bleachers and toward the pool entrance. It’s dark and she can still hear the singing, but she can’t see who it is. She edges down the sloping concrete and into the empty pool.

_“If they keep telling me where to go, I’ll blow my brains out to the radio - oh- ch-chuck.”_

Stacie smiles to herself slightly, even if she’s annoyed she’s not alone. The girl is good, whoever she is, and this song kills.

_“All of the things we’re taking, cause we are young and we’re ashamed, send us to perfect places…”_

Stacie finally gets an eye on the girl and stops walking. She’s almost in the middle of the pool and completely in the open, but the girl has her eyes closed so she doesn’t see her. The girl’s sitting on the edge of the pool, her feet dangling into empty space, singing her heart out.

Stacie chuckles to herself, feeling some of the jaded energy that’s been swirling around her chest for the past week start to dissipate.

_“Every night, I live and die, meet somebody take ‘em home - ”_

“Let’s kiss and then take off our clothes,” Stacie sing-songs and the girl startles, her eyes opening and her whole body jolting. She almost falls off the edge of the pool, but manages to cling onto the lip. Stacie frowns. “Sorry,” she calls. “It’s a good song.”

The girl stares at her with wide eyes. “You’re not a ghost are you?”

“Not yet,” Stacie hums. She carefully sets the glass she’s carrying down on the ground and slings her backpack off her shoulder.

“Are you a criminal or a drug addict?”

Stacie snorts. “No, not exactly.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

Stacie squints up at the girl in the darkness, her body backlit only by the shining of the full moon. “Science. What are you doing here?”

“Singing,” the girl says like it’s obvious. “What kind of science? I like marine biology. Sometimes I play music for my fish.”

“I hear fish like music,” Stacie hums and continues taking out her supplies. She sets her propane tank down a good distance from the glass.

“My fish does. I mean, I think he does. He always comes out of hiding when I play it. But maybe he’s just hungry. I can’t tell. His name his Tupac.”

Stacie pauses in her motions too shoot the girl a smile. “I like that. What’s your name?”

“Emily,” the girl says. “Emily Hardon Junk. But I usually just go by Emily Junk because kids used to make fun of me for Hardon when I was in elementary school and didn’t even know what that was. But now I know and I just go by Junk. Sometimes they still make fun of me for that, too.”

Stacie frowns. “I’ll just call you Emily.”

“Okay,” Emily chirps. “What’s your name?”

Stacie pauses, then, reluctantly, “Stacie. Stacie Conrad.”

“Oh.” Emily says and Stacie sighs.

“Yeah.”

“Okay Stacie Conrad. Can I help with your science?”

Stacie raises her eyebrows, but feels herself unexpectedly smiling. “If you want to, I guess. If you be really careful.”

Emily beams at her and slides down the side of the pool, her jeans and checkered Vans scraping against the concrete. She doesn’t seem to mind.

Stacie thinks she likes this girl.

//

Aubrey has a lot of work to do and she doesn’t have time for this.

That’s what she keeps telling herself anyway, and yet here she is, _lingering_ , like some loitering teenager outside a 7-Eleven.

She can hear Emily singing distantly, so she’s _hovering_ , caught between campus and this decrepit, rundown old pool. And it’s all because of the figure she can hear coming down the sidewalk, the _clunk clunk clunk_ of a skateboard over the cracks in the cement.

She’s not leaving Emily by herself with some skateboarding stoner coming to tear up this empty pool at ten pm. Emily is smart and capable, but her social skills aren’t exactly the best, and there’s no way in _hell_ Aubrey is letting her be coerced by some criminal into something she doesn’t need in her life, whatever that might be.

So she waits, watching as the skaters pumps their leg to go faster, hopping their board up the curb and toward the fence she’d just boosted Emily over.

Emily has stopped singing and Aubrey holds her breath as the figure tucks their board under their arm and scrambles up the chain link fence like a lemur before dropping down on the other side and out of sight.

She deliberates for a moment, and then sighs, following after as quickly and gracefully as possible.

//

“So basically at different temperatures, the Caesium alternates energy states and the gas can absorb the waves so it oscillates…”

“So you’re just observing?”

Stacie nods. “I’d like to gain a baseline empirical knowledge, but it’s not stable enough for my apartment, that’s why I’m in the pool. If it mixes wrong with the propane it could explode. I mean obviously that’s a worst-case scenario, but I don’t think my security deposit covers that.”

“No, probably not,” Emily frowns in thought, and Stacie laughs to herself.

She finishes setting up the makeshift bunsen burner with her propane tank and moves the Caesium to the side carefully.

She’s just about to tell Emily to step back when she hears the distinct clink of the chain link fence. They both turn around to see a small figure drop down from the top and land with a quiet _oomph_.

“Who’s that?” Emily whispers. Stacie shrugs.

The figure walks to the edge of the pool and as they come into view, Stacie sees it’s a girl, small, wearing a large beanie and mammoth-sized headphones. She has a skateboard under her arm.

When she sees them in the pool, she stops and pulls her headphones down. “Hey!” She yells. “This is a restricted area!”

Stacie scoffs. “So what are you doing here then?”

The girl balances her board on the lip of the pool before pushing herself over the edge and skating down it. She rolls past them, eases up the other side of the pool, and rolls back down, sliding to a stop next to Emily.

“I’m here to relive my parents divorce. Or visit my gynecologist. You decide.” She smirks and flips her board up, catching it between her fingers.

“That sounds painful,” Emily states. “We’re just doing science. This is Stacie, and I’m Emily Hardon Junk. Well, I just go by Emily Junk now because kids used to make fun of me in elementary school before I knew what that was. I know what it is now, so I just go by Emily Junk, but sometimes people still make fun of me for that, too.”

Stacie smiles slightly as the new girl meets her gaze, eyebrows raised. “Uh. Right.”

“Go skate somewhere else,” Stacie tells her.

“No can do, Doc,” the small girl grins. “Only empty pool in the vicinity.”

At that point, there’s another rattling of the chain link and a tall blonde drops down. Stacie sighs in frustration, but Emily beams.

“Aubrey!”

The blonde - Aubrey - peers over the edge of the pool with clear disapproval.

“Em, are you ready to go home?”

Emily shakes her head. “No, we’re doing science. This is Stacie. And this is... “ Emily gives the new girl a questioning look.

“Darth Vader,” the girl deadpans.

“This is Darth Vader,” Emily calls, then frowns. “Wait. That’s a joke.”

The girl snorts and drops her board down. She puts one foot on it and rolls the wheels back and forth. Stacie eyes the board with unease.

Then, to Stacie’s extreme dismay, the chainlink clinks again and _another_ figure drops into the area.

“It’s a real party here,” Darth Vader laughs. Stacie can hear faint music from the headphones around her neck.

“Okay I was here first,” Stacie calls to the four others. “I’m working with explosive materials and you all need to buzz off.”

Emily pouts at her. “Actually I was here first.”

“You can stay,” Stacie grumbles. She just wants to do her goddamn experiment.

“Actually,” says the _newest_ figure, who’s come to stand next to Aubrey. “I was here first.”

“No,” Emily shakes her head. “I was.”

The person lets their hood drop and Stacie sees a redheaded girl who she actually _knows_. She rolls her eyes.

“Been here since 2013,” the girl shrugs with a smile.

“Only because you refuse to graduate, Chloe,” Stacie shoots back.

Chloe laughs. “Well, who would want to leave this place?”

“Me,” Aubrey, Stacie, and the still unidentified skateboarder say in unison.

“Not me,” Emily chirps.

“And who are you?” Chloe asks with interest.

Emily takes a deep. “Emily Hardon Junk, but now I just go by Emily Junk because in elementary - ”

“Not now, Em,” Aubrey interrupts, giving the rest of the group a clear look of disdain.

The small girl, who’s still rolling her board back and forth under her shoe, slips slightly on the wet concrete and the board goes flying. They all watch as she falls on her ass.

Well, all except Stacie, who watches as the board shoots out from under her shoe and rams right into her ampoule of Caesium. Her eyes widen as the glass cracks and rolls up against the propane tank.

“Ow,” the small girl mutters.

“Shit” Stacie hisses, moving over to the glass. Her heart drops when she sees a clear crack in it, the Caesium inside clearly visible. She leans back just as the air above the bottle bursts into flames. “Shit shit shit.” She scrambles back and right into Emily.

“Uh. Is it supposed to do that?” Emily asks and Stacie furiously shakes her head.

She grabs Emily by the arm. “No, let’s get out of here, _quick_.” She pulls at the coat of the small girl on the ground. “Come on, that thing’s gonna blow up.”

There’s a squawk from above them and Aubrey peers deeper into the pool, her hand shading her eyes from the bright flame. “I’m sorry, _blow up_?”

“Yep,” Stacie grunts, pushing the other two girls toward the pool ladder closest to them. Emily rolls with it and starts climbing, but the other girl scoffs and pulls her arm away.

“Dude!”

Stacie grips her arm again. “What part of _blow_ _up_ don’t you understand, Tony Hawk?”

“Tony Hawk? I thought it was Darth Vader.” Emily’s voice comes from over the pool lip.

“My board!”

“I’ll get it,” Stacie yells. “Just get out of here. We have maybe thirty seconds until that propane tank goes. Have you ever seen when flames shake hands with a tank of gas?”

The girl shakes her head and Stacie gives her a push up the ladder. Aubrey is already pulling Emily’s arm toward the gap in the fence, Chloe close behind her.

Stacie hauls ass back to the flames and grabs the idiot girl’s skateboard. Then she sprints toward the pool exit, running up the sloping concrete and the steps. She could run around the edge of the whole pool toward the gap or climb the fence, but she’s not sure which she has time for. She breaks for the fence, tossing the board over to the other side.  

She manages to get halfway up the fence before there’s an explosion behind her. Heat and pressure shake her and she drops down, covering her head.

A loud _BOOM_ rumbles through the ground and a cloud of smoke engulfs her.

Then there’s nothing, just the crackle of flames, and darkness.

//

Beca has barely managed to squeeze through to the other side of the fence when there’s an explosion.

She falls on her ass for the second time, a blast of heat washing over her from behind.

“STACIE!”

“Em, stop.”

“STACIE!” The chain beside Beca rattles as Emily Hardon Junk slams into it, trying to peer through the thick debris and smoke coming from the pool. “Where is she?”

The tall blonde jerks on Emily’s hand. “Emily, she just almost got us _killed_.”

“We’re not _leaving_ her, she saved us.” She looks down at Beca. “What happened to her?”

Beca shrugs, coughing when she inhales smoke, but Emily doesn’t wait for her to answer. Instead, she steps over Beca and launches herself through the gap in the fence.

“EMILY!” The tall blonde yells, shooting after the girl. Beca crawls back through the hole too, mostly because she wants her board, but also because there, like, was an explosion? So that’s pretty wild.

“Hey,” the redheaded girl says, grabbing Beca from behind. “Do you know these people?”

“Nope.” Beca shakes the girl off and leans over to look in the pool. Through the now thinning cloud of smoke, she can see the middle of the pool is destroyed.

Chunks of concrete and plaster shoot up in jagged edges from the center of the pool where a massive hole gapes open. The area burns lowly, Stacie’s backpack smoldering in the middle of it all.

Beca doesn’t see her board, but she does see a faint yellow glow from inside the small crater. She hops over the pool lip and slides down into the pool.

“Hey!” The redhead calls. “Don’t go in there alone!”

Then she slides down after Beca.

“Do you… see that?” Beca asks, trying to peer through the smoke and darkness toward the glow.

“See what?” The girl chirps, lighthearted and casual as if they didn’t just sort of have something to do with blowing up this vacant pool.

“That glow?”

Beca shuffles forward, her hand reaching out to touch -

“HEY!”

A figure looms over the lip of the pool on the opposite side, a dark shadow through the smoke. It limps down the sloped floor of the pool until it comes into view, and Beca notices, with some unexpected relief, that it’s the Stacie girl, the other two following quickly after.

Stacie marches (well, limp-marches) up to her, and then, in a move surprising Beca, pushes her in the chest.

“You almost blew us up you moron!”

Beca scoffs. “ _Me_? I had nothing to do with that. It was _your_ explosion.”

“I was being careful, but here you come, all nonchalant with your stupid skateboard, messing around in places you shouldn’t be messing around.”

“Uh, guys…”

“Screw you, dude! I come here all the time and there’s never been any explosions because _it’s not my fault_.”

“Guys…”

“If it hadn’t been for your fucking skateboard then - ”

“GUYS!”

They all turn to look at Emily, who’s reaching into the crater, the back of her legs barely seen over the edge.

“Em what are you _doing_?” The tall blonde tugs on Emily’s legs and Emily sits up, a wide smile breaking across her face.

“Look!”

Beca blinks. There, in the girl’s hands, is a faint blue glowing… rock? Medal?

Coin?

Beca peers into the crater again, drawn to the yellow glow she had seen before. She crawls on her stomach, reaching in, and just as her hand clasps the yellow glow, she feels herself start to slip. She yelps, but there’s a yank on her feet, and she steadies.

“Gotcha,” the redhead giggles, and Beca frowns over her shoulder at the girl.

“Uh. Thanks? Can you pull me out?”

She pulls and Beca reaches her hand out until the girl grabs it and tugs Beca out of the hole.

She plops down on her butt and examines the coin. It’s warm in her hands, rustic and rusted, giving off a faint yellow glow that seems to be coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Beca frowns and looks up, only to see the others are all holding similar coins. Black, red, pink…

“What do you think these are?” She asks, instinctively turning to Stacie.

The girl’s eyebrows furrow, and she opens her mouth and -

A loud siren rings in the distance and Beca jolts.

“Shit,” she hisses, all too familiar with that sound. “Campus security.” She scrambles to her feet and starts jogging up the sloped floor of the pool. “Where’s my board?” She calls over her shoulder.

“Over the fence,” Stacie answers, hot on her heels. The rest of them aren’t far behind.

Beca climbs on the picnic table and up the fence, hoisting herself over. She lands in the weeds next to her board, and Stacie plops down next to her. Behind them, the other three are grabbing at the chain link just as the area around them floods with blue and red lights.

“Fuck,” Beca curses, grabbing her board and booking it through the weeds. She hears the others following, but she doesn’t care to look back. She runs toward the closest building, even though she knows from experience that it’s a dilapidated dorm. This whole outskirt is Old Campus, rundown and forgotten.

She sprints across the dead grass and over the gravel walkway surrounding the building and busts through the door with a stitch in her side, praying to God security doesn’t come this way. If they catch her, there’s no way in _hell_ her dad will help her move to LA at the end of the year. Not after she ended up in jail last month for accidentally sending her skateboard through that display window…

The building has an old musty smell about it and the floors creak when she steps over them. The wood is rotten away in some places, and Beca peers down into a hole in the floor. She knows it’s several floors down to the bottom basement from times she’s hidden in here before.

The group crashes into the building behind her.

Aubrey is grumbling something, but Beca ignores her, listening out to see if the sirens are getting any closer. She can’t tell, and she frowns.

“What is this place?” Emily whispers.

“The old Baker dorm,” the redhead responds.

“This your dorm, Beale?” Stacie snarks and the redhead scoffs.

“It closed a few years before my time, thank you very much.”

Beca tries to ignore them, watching her footing as she moves toward the window at the end of the hall. Maybe she can look out and see what the situation is and if she needs to keep running. She creeps over the faded carpet, stepping over weakened wood and cracked tiles.

Behind her, there’s a yelp, and she whips around as Emily steps into a hole in the floor. The whole thing cracks, and she disappears from view.

“EMILY!” Aubrey yells, and then the floor underneath Beca gives a loud groan, a crack, and suddenly she’s falling, they’re _all_ falling, four stories down three stories two - into darkness and pain and then -

Nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all boring exposition basically stolen from the movie but I hope you enjoy it just the same!

Aubrey eases into consciousness the same way she might ease into leading a men’s rights group.

Poorly.

Oxygen overwhelms her lungs and she gasps, rolling out of bed and landing on her feet in a crouch. She grunts, her entire body groaning in pain.

Then it all comes back.

She flinches, remembering the fire, the explosion, running after Emily through the weeds, falling through the weakened floor of the building and crashing into the ground.

How the _hell_ is she alive?

She spins around to look in the mirror, but pauses when she sees a faint red glow from her vanity. Her fingers curl around the coin and she holds it at eye level.

What is going on?

She drops the coin back on the dresser and pads down to the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face and examining herself in the mirror. She lifts her tank top up to see a long purple-green bruise down her ribcage, one that looks to be something that’s been healing for days, not hours.

She reaches toward the tap to turn the water off, but the metal snaps off in her hand, her fingers crushing it into an oblong shape.

An unfamiliar strength bursts through her veins, an adrenaline she’s never experienced. There’s a faint red glow from the sink as the scarlet coin she’d set down on her dresser materializes out of thin air.

That’s when she throws up.

//

Stacie wakes to the buzzing of her phone.

She huffs into her pillow, her hand blindly reaching out to grab the device. Groaning, she rolls over and squints at the screen, her stomach bottoming out when she sees the notification, a campus alert informing students that there may be dangerous criminals on the loose after a group set a bomb off in Old Campus. Suspects not yet found.

Stacie scoffs.

It wasn’t a _bomb_ , get it right.

Then her phone buzzes again in her hand, a text coming through from her old cheermates. She doesn’t want to read it, but her eyes scan the message, more accusations and threats to send another email to ruin her reputation and life.

Anger flares up in her and she scowls, but it quickly turns to a gasp when her phone, previously pristine and not even scratched, _shatters_ in her now clenched fingers.

_What the fuck_.

//

Emily doesn’t know what’s going on.

She’s pretty sure she’s dead, but then she wouldn’t be alive, and she is definitely alive. She’s frantically patting herself down to double check, and yep, she’s definitely alive. There’s her face and her arms and her boobs and her stomach, like she is all there.

She can hear Aubrey in the bathroom so Aubrey must be alive, too.

Emily’s still in her jeans, too, and that’s weird. She never sleeps in her jeans. She hates sleeping in her jeans. They’re scratchy and tight. And they’re _usually_ ripped at the knees - she bought them that way - but now there are rips all down the legs, and those definitely weren’t there when she bought them.

She feels a lump in her pocket and jams her hand in, her fingers curling around a warm, unidentified object. She pulls it out and -

Screeches, tossing the glowing blue coin onto her bed.

She definitely had dropped it when they were scaling the fence. How did it get _here_?

“Am I going crazy?” She whispers to herself, her heart racing. She pulls her dirty jeans off and goes to the closet to throw them into the hamper, but when she tugs on the door handle, the entire door flies off. Emily releases the handle in surprise and the closet door slams into the wall, knocking a picture frame off its nail.

“EMILY!”

Eyes wide, Emily stares at her hands in horror. Aubrey bursts through her bedroom door without knocking for the first time _ever_.

“Aubs…” Emily turns to her and sees a crushed water tap from the bathroom sink in her roommate’s hand. Aubrey’s entire appearance is in unusual disarray, her hair all over the place and shoulders bruised. “What is going _on_?”

//

They decide to go about their day as normal because Aubrey demands routine. Emily is happy to oblige because so does she.

That’s part of why they work.

Still, she keeps taking the blue coin out of her pocket and setting it down somewhere, then walking away. She’s surprised every time it reappears in her pocket, an unsettling weight against her leg.

She’s sitting in the quad, tossing the coin a few feet in front of her in the grass. She tries to catch it disappearing, but she can’t. One second it’s in the grass, and another it’s gone, like she blinked it out of existence. Then it lands in her lap.

Over and over again.

How?

“We need to talk.”

A figure eases down next to her on the grass and Emily covers the coin protectively, but it’s just Stacie and she breathes a sigh of relief.

“Do you feel… weird?” Stacie hedges and Emily clenches the coin in her palm.

“You mean weirder than usual? Because yes.”

“I crushed my _phone_ this morning,” Stacie whispers, and she pulls out a cell phone, the glass cracked and shattered, the circuits visible under the hard plastic.

Emily laughs. “I’m crazy strong. I threw my closet door across the room.”

Another body sits down next to them. “I broke our bathroom sink,” Aubrey clips, clearly unhappy. Emily tentatively squeezes her wrist before immediately letting go.

“Do you know what’s happening?” Emily asks Stacie.

Stacie shakes her head and holds up her own coin, a dull pink glinting in the sunlight. “No, but I’m betting it has to do with these coins.”

Aubrey nods and pulls out her own coin, red and rusted. “I can’t get rid of it.”

“We have to go back to the pool,” Stacie says. “I don’t know know what’s going on, but that seems the place to find out. I mean,” Stacie frowns, her fingers running over a partially healed cut on her forearm. “We should’ve like, totally died last night, right? Or at least been majorly fucked up. I’m barely even sore.”

“I’m pretty sure I broke my ribs,” Aubrey says and Emily glances at her with wide eyes.

“You did?”

Aubrey raises her eyebrow. “Yes, but they healed.”

“We’re going back,” Stacie nods. “We have to.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

Emily frowns. “But what about my class?”

“Is your class really more important than our freaky new superpowers?”

Emily hesitates. “We’re learning about deep sea trenches.”

Aubrey shoots her a fond smile. “You can go into office hours and see what you missed, Em.”

“Okay,” Emily nods. “Yeah. Good idea. Okay, let’s go.”

Aubrey pushes herself up, reaching a hand down to help Emily. Emily grabs it, dropping her coin. She feels it land back in her pocket when she scrambles up.

“Why is everyone staring at us?” Aubrey asks, her eyes narrowed at a group of girls across the quad.

Emily shrugs, but Stacie sighs. “Yeah, that happens to me.”

Emily didn’t notice, has no idea what she’s talking about, but Aubrey lets out a small hum of understanding.

Stacie flips her hair over her shoulder and starts walking away, her chin high, ignoring the stares and whispers Emily can now hear.

Emily and Aubrey hurry after her.

//

Chloe Beale has been called crazy a lot in the past few years.

The thing is, she’s a little needy, and a lot clingy, and borderline obsessive about everything that grants her an ounce of happiness.

But she’s not actually crazy.

Well, not medically diagnosed as such anyway.

Except this morning she woke up alive and healthy and strong.

_Insanely_ strong.

Her body feels _alive_. Alive in a way it hasn’t felt in six years. She laughs, feeling the wind in her hair and the sunlight on her face. She treads the worn path down to Old Campus, turning the blackened coin over in her fingers.

Grinning, she launches it into the sky as far as she can. Then she flips her hand up, closes her eyes, and waits.

A solid weight appears in her fingers and she opens her eyes to see the coin in her palm.

She feels herself beaming like some kind of maniac, but she doesn’t care. She takes off at a sprint and boosts herself to the top of the pool fence in one jump, slinging herself over and landing in a crouch, graceful and strong.

She doesn’t know what happened last night, but she’s clinging to this feeling like a lifeline.

“Hey!”

She whips around at Stacie’s familiar voice and lets out a laugh when she sees two of the other girls from last night ducking under the hole in the fence behind her. “Hey!”

Stacie eyes her dubiously. “You on drugs or something, Beale?”

Chloe sure feels like it. “Why, are you selling?”

“Hugs not drugs,” the brunette one frowns and Chloe watches as the tall blonde one gives her a fond look.

Chloe decides on the spot she likes those two.

“You guys want to see a trick?” She grins, and both Stacie and the blonde cross their arms across their chests, but the brunette nods.

Chloe steps to the edge of the pool, takes a deep breath, and does a backflip off the lip and into the pool, landing in a crouch.

Then she flops on her back, her body shaking with laughter.

“You’re crazy,” Stacie calls down to her.

“Yeah, I am!”

“Hey look!” The brunette points and Chloe sits up, looking over her shoulder just in time to see the top of a beanie disappearing into the giant crater left in the pool.

Chloe beams. “HEY! WAIT UP!”

She scrambles over to the crater and peers down. The ground has charred a deep black, the concrete jutting up haphazardly. But there’s a small opening, just barely big enough to crawl through, and a small girl wiggling her way down. Chloe hops into the crater and grabs the girl’s ankle before it disappears.

“Gotcha,” she grins.

The foot kicks at her. “Get off, dude,” a muffled voice says from within the hole.

Chloe releases the ankle and it disappears from view. Not really one to be deterred, Chloe follows. She eases down on her stomach and army crawls through the hole. She hears the others dropping down into the crater behind her.

The hole forms a long tunnel, and Chloe crawls until it’s too dark to see. She can hear movement in front and behind her, and she keeps following the ground. Suddenly it drops off and she topples down a short ways and crashes into a body.

“Oomph,” she grunts as the person pushes her off. A small beam of light appears, blinding Chloe until she squints in the darkness and sees the fourth girl from the night before, phone light held up high. She takes one look at Chloe and bolts, her light moving away. Chloe shines her own phone light and follows, noting the bizarre tunnel system that’s been hidden under Old Campus and must have been here the whole time.

Barden is the one thing Chloe knows best in this world, so she’s surprised there’s an unknown, uncovered part of it she hadn’t been aware of previously.

She jogs after the echoing footsteps when suddenly they stop and the small prick of light in front of her flies through the air. Chloe just barely skids to a stop at the edge of a large drop off. Behind her, the three others do the same. Chloe holds her light as high as possible to see across the gap to the other side, where the small girl smirks at her.

“How’d you get over there?” The tall brunette asks.

“Jumped,” the beanie-clad girl calls back.

Chloe peers down into the gap, frowning at the large pool of water, seemingly a natural source, filling the space.

“Can you just talk to us?” Stacie yells across the gap. “We need to figure out what these coins are.”

“Fuck off!” The girl replies.

“She’s kind of rude,” the brunette behind Chloe deadpans. Chloe giggles.

If that’s how the girl wants to play, Chloe’s game. She takes a few casual steps back from the edge of the cliff. Then she runs forward and leaps, feeling power surge through her body. She laughs mid-air, her legs still flailing, and braces herself as the ground shifts closer and she slams into it at the other girl’s feet.

She grabs her ankle again.

“Dude, you’re fucking crazy,” the girl says, shaking off Chloe’s hand.

Chloe shrugs. “So are you.” She pushes herself up and looks across to the side she came from. “Just jump!” She yells.

Stacie and the blonde look at each other and she hears the tall brunette mutter something frantically, but then the two of them are running and jumping across the gap. They land next to each other in a crouch.

The blonde immediately spins to look back to the other side. “Emily, jump!”

“No!” The tall brunette - Emily, that’s right - calls. She starts pacing back and forth. “It’s too far, Aubrey!”

“But we all were able to!” Aubrey calls back. “You can do it!”

Emily continues to pace and back and forth while Aubrey yells encouraging words to her. Then she takes off at a sprint and jumps, her arms flailing and a scream coming out of her mouth. Her fingers just barely grab onto the ledge and they all scramble to pull her onto flat ground.

She pants and looks over her shoulder at the drop. “Wow!”

“Told you,” Aubrey smiles at her.

Emily nods and pushes herself up on her legs, but as she takes a step, she slips on some loose gravel and -

Falls.

//

“EMILY!” Aubrey watches in horror as Emily topples over the side of the cliff. There’s a distant splash and she leans over the edge to look down. “EMILY!”

“Did we just kill that girl?” Chloe murmurs, her eyes worried.

Aubrey can’t fathom that. Emily _can’t_ be dead. Not after everything.

“Come on, come on, come on,” she whispers to herself.

There’s a beat of silence, then -

“HEY! YOU GUYS GOTTA COME DOWN HERE!” A tiny speck bobs in the water and Emily waves up at her, her smile visible even from a distance in the dimly lit cavern.

Aubrey breathes a sigh of relief, her head falling into her hands. Stacie gives her shoulder a squeeze and they both grin down at Emily, now floating on her back in the water.

Next to her, Chloe laughs loudly. “Oh, now _that’s_ wild.” She nudges Aubrey. “Bring that one.” She juts her head toward the small girl they’d been chasing.

Then she dives off the cliff with a whoop.

“They’re crazy,” Aubrey whispers to herself, but she feels herself smiling as Emily splashes Chloe in the face with a wave off water. “Let’s go!” She yells at the others and jumps off herself.

She vaguely hears her father’s voice in her head on the way down, “ _if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”_ and laughs to herself.

Apparently.

She hits the water with a splash, plunging deep below the surface. She pushes with her legs until her head is above water and she can see Emily.

“You alright?” She asks.

Emily beams at her. “Do you think there are fish in here, Aubs?”

Aubrey hopes not.

“AHHHHHHH!” She looks up to see the other two girls plummeting down, Stacie’s arms wrapped tightly around the smaller one.

When they break the surface, Stacie’s smirking and the other girl is muttering something under her breath.

Emily gasps. “Aubrey, look! I’m _glowing!_ ”

Aubrey blinks. Emily is indeed glowing, a deep, vibrant blue reflected in the water. The others too. Pink, black, yellow. She looks down to see a red glow emanating from her pocket where her coin is.

Emily giggles. “We’re like a rainbow.”

Then she dives beneath the water. Aubrey exchanges an awed look with Stacie, whose auburn hair has a pink tint to it in the ripples around her.

Emily resurfaces with a gasp. “There’s something _down_ there!”

And then she dives again.

Aubrey follows, because where Emily goes, Aubrey goes That’s how it’s always been. The others splash after them. Emily swims deeper, Aubrey pushing after her, until they come to an impossible wall of water.

Aubrey pauses, uncertain, but Emily sticks her hand out and touches it. Bubbles float out of her mouth as she gasps. She turns to look at Aubrey with wide eyes, then swims through the wall.

Aubrey follows, not expecting the sudden feeling of… nothingness that greets her on the other side. She pushes her head through, gasping oxygen into her lungs and marveling at how the water just… stops.

_How_ is this possible?

Gravity shifts and suddenly she’s dangling upside down. “Uh - ”

“AH!” Emily screams as she falls and the breath she just took leaves her as Aubrey’s body does the same.

She hits the dirt below her with a painful _thud_ , the others falling behind her just as quickly.

She sits up, grabbing her head and looking at the others. Stacie and Emily seem fine, staring up at the wall of water curiously. The small girl has collapsed on Chloe and is staring down at her with a scowl.

“Hey,” Chloe grins. “You know, you didn’t strike me as a top.”

The girl scoffs and pushes herself off Chloe. Her cheeks burn when she meets Aubrey’s eyes and Aubrey just raises an eyebrow.

“What is this place?” Stacie asks, neck still tilted toward the water wall.

“I don’t know, but it’s physically improbable this could exist,” Emily hums.

“More like impossible,” Stacie murmurs. She reaches out and touches the wall before jolting backward. “The walls are vibrating. I don’t understand this.”

A strange sensation tingles in Aubrey’s joints, like she’s being watched. “I think there’s something down here,” she says, and exchanges another glance with Stacie. Stacie nods, her eyes flicking down the cavern they’re in. Aubrey gets the message and they quietly ease through the open space.

They move around a bend and Aubrey halts. Besides her, Emily gasps.

“That isn’t possible.”

“Is that… a spaceship?” Chloe asks, mouth dropping open.

“What the fuck?” The other girl whispers, her beanie now off and soaking in her hand.

Aubrey is a skeptic, a voice of reason and logic, but nothing about the past twenty-fours has made any sense. She blinks at the craft in front of them, eyes roving over the ridged metal, the sharp wings. It’s like nothing she’s ever seen before, silver and _ancient_ , but somehow _advanced_.

Emily moves toward it, ever curious, and Aubrey’s quick at her heels. As they get closer, the ship’s massive size becomes more apparent. The underwater cavern seems to have formed around the ship, the rocks shifting and eroding until the ship became embedded in the walls.

They come to a set of stairs, the ship’s entrance, and Aubrey’s pocket burns.

“I don’t like this,” the small girl mutters, pulling her sopping jacket around her. “This is fucked.”

Aubrey’s pocket pulses even hotter and she takes the coin out, the glow that had previously been rather dull now a bright red, a beating heart in the darkness.

They all stare at the glow, moving closer. She can feel Chloe’s breath on her cheek.

Behind them, there’s a clink of metal sliding as the ship door opens. They all spin around in alarm. Stacie grabs Aubrey’s arm, but as Emily takes off up the stairs, they both hurry after her.

A quiet _“dude”_ comes from behind them but Aubrey doesn’t care. Something about this ship is _calling_ to them, and Emily is going, so Aubrey isn’t staying behind.

They ascend into the ship, easing onto a raised circular platform, paths branching off in every direction. The entranceway looms above them, dark and cold and silent.

Chloe breaks the quiet by laughing loudly. “This is _wild_.”

“Shh!” The small girl hisses.

Chloe just chuckles again. “Think there’s aliens in here?”

Emily frowns. “It’s more probable that there are creatures from deep-water habitats.”

Aubrey squints into the darkness. “Nothing about this is probable, Em.”

“This isn’t real, right, Aubs? This is a dream.”

Aubrey shakes her head. “No, this is real. Just breathe okay?”

Emily has that crinkle in her forehead that she gets when she’s trying to figure out something way beyond her. Aubrey breathes deeply until Emily does the same.

“We’ve seen enough, dudes. I’m out of here.” The small girl moves back toward the stairs, her face pinched and smirk absent, but Chloe grabs her arm.

“Are you nuts? We’re in a spaceship. We’re gonna be famous!”

“Be quiet,” Aubrey hisses as a deep sound reverberates from further within the ship. She’s on high alert, ready to run or fight or _something_.

Suddenly the ship comes to life. The inner compartments begin to light up, some spinning, some sliding open. Aubrey whips around to try to watch it all, to assess what’s happening and what to do.

Stacie screams as the stairs they came up fold in on themselves to form a flat platform. “The exit! It’s gone!”

Aubrey turns in a panic, looking for any way out. “That way!” She points down a tunnel where she can see a faint light, and they all take off running.

Aubrey launches herself into a web of overhanging metal parts, pulling Emily in after her. She puts a finger to her lips, breathing heavily, as the rest of the group disappears into their own hiding spots.

There’s a low whirring and beeping, a clicking on the metal of the floor. A sense of dread floods Aubrey’s stomach.

Then there’s a scream and a thud as the unnamed skateboarder hits the floor, being pulled down the hallway by her foot.

Chloe shoots after her. “HEY!”

They all follow and Aubrey watches in terror as Chloe tries to tackle a - _robot???????_ \- and is knocked clean to the ground.

“YOU’RE HERE!” The robot shouts gleefully.

Aubrey skids to a halt in front of it, pushing Emily and Stacie behind her. “We’ll kill you! Don’t test me!”

The robot lifts its tiny arms, its clawed hands waving in exasperation. “Kill me? How?”

Aubrey stares at its disc-like head, mouth opening and closing in shock.

“There’s five of us and one of you,” Stacie spits out.

“I know!” The robot seems to smile even though it doesn’t have lips. “I’ve been waiting for you!” Then it tilts its head to the side. “Wait, there’s only four of you. Oh!” Its arm extends to grab Chloe by the ankle and pull her closer across the floor. “There you all are!”

Emily peers around Aubrey. “Excuse me. How long have you been waiting?”

Aubrey represses a smile, her heart still beating fast.

“How long?” The robot seems to ponder it. “What day is it?”

“Wednesday,” Emily responds.

“Oh,” the robot nods. “Then let’s see… yes… hm… sixty-five million years!”

Stacie chokes. “Sixty - ”

“Oh my stars,” Emily whispers.

“I’m so glad to see you!” The robot says, its shoulders sagging. “I’ve been so lonely. But wow, you’re all so young! And female! I don’t think we’ve had an all-girl group before… no… no… certainly not!”

Aubrey furrows her eyebrows. “Group? Wait is this because of the coins?”

The robot laughs. “Yes, of course! The coins! And it’s so good you’re here! Look! Turn around and see!”

They all glance at each other. Aubrey reluctantly turns to look, letting out a noise of surprise when she sees the glowing lights seemingly floating in space, bordered by five distinct platforms.

The wall of the ship seems to be made of a staticy fluid material, pixelated and alive, like it’s breathing.

“Proceed, go on!” The robot shouts and Aubrey jumps. “Step onto the footprints!”

Emily takes a step toward them but Aubrey instinctively grabs her hand. “Em!”

“What? He said to step on them.”

Stacie meets her eyes. “Okay, just think of a plan and at the first opportunity we get - ”

“We run like hell,” the small girl whispers.

They nod and Aubrey cautiously looks at the platform with the red prints.

“Excuse me, again,” Emily says. “Um. Are you an alien? A robot? What… are you?”

The robot bounces in excitement. “Im ALPHA-5! Alphormic Locate Persona Helper Android!”

“What happened to the other four?” The small girl murmurs. Aubrey snorts.

“I’m a talking robot!” ALPHA says, its glowing orange, orblike spheres-for-eyes gleaming. “You can trust me.”

Aubrey thinks there’s not a _chance_ of that happening, but then Emily’s moving toward the blue platform.

“Emily!” Aubrey hisses, but Emily’s already stepping on it. It pulses blue when her feet touch the glowing footprints and she cringes, waiting for the explosion...

Nothing happens.

Aubrey breathes in relief, turning her gaze curiously to the red footprints. The others are already moving toward their platforms, even the girl with the yellow-coin, so Aubrey steps onto hers, watching as it pulses when her feet make contact.

The second they’re all on their platforms, the pixelated wall bursts into life. The ship shakes and Aubrey grabs the handrails on her platform to steady herself. A gargantuan face, pixelated and androgynous, protrudes from the wall.

“ZORDON!” APLHA calls in excitement. “CAN YOU HEAR ME!”

The face screams back and ALPHA starts speaking to it in an unknown language. Aubrey immediately seizes the opportunity and hops off her platform, streaking toward Emily and grabbing her by the arm.

“Come on!” She yells at the others, pulling Emily toward the exit.

They run down the way they came but as they’re about to sprint down the hallway, the metal door slams closed.

“Shit,” Stacie grunts.

They’re trapped and ALPHA is still screaming.

“Come back, please!”

The face in the wall stares at them, glowing a red as deep as Aubrey’s coin. They reluctantly move closer again.

“This is Zordon,” ALPHA buzzes. Aubrey and Stacie make eye contact again. “AH! Zordon… they have no idea who you are.”

The face peers down at them critically. “ _These_ are them? But.. they’re so small.”

“Fuck off!” The yellow-coined girl shouts indignantly.

“ALPHA,” the face continues. “You mean to tell me… the fate of the universe is placed in the hands of these _girls_?”

“Universe?” Emily whispers.

Aubrey scoffs. “Girls? What’s that supposed to mean?”

The face slides across the digital wall until it’s in front of her. “Show me the coins!”

Aubrey and Chloe hold theirs up, the others doing the same behind them.

The face frowns. “The Morphing Grid is never wrong. If the coins have returned to the ship with these girls, then they are the Power Rangers.”

“WOO POWER RANGERS!” ALPHA screams.

Emily claps excitedly, but Aubrey frowns.

“Sorry?” Chloe says. “ _Power Rangers_?”

“Yes,” the face says. “Any other questions?”

“Yeah, hi!” Emily steps forward. “I’m Emily Hardon Junk. Well now just Junk because kids used to make fun - ”

“Emily!” Stacie grunts. “Get to the point.”

Emily nods. “Right, sorry. Anyway.” She points to the glowing galaxy of lights behind her. Aubrey now sees there are images in it, figures of different colors. “These images tell the history of the Power Rangers? They’re a team that protects life? And life is this bright light. Or… a fragment of light?”

The face smiles for the first time. “Yes! Well done, Emily. It is called the Zeo Crystal, and it is the essence of all life. Every planet in the universe that has life has a piece of the crystal buried inside it.”

“Wait, so it’s confirmed there are _more_ planets with life?” Stacie gapes, eyes wide. “Aliens are real…” she whispers.

“Dude, is now the time?” The small girl side-eyes her. Stacie shrugs.

“Five million years ago, Zordon’s team died defending the crystal,” ALPHA interrupts.

Aubrey looks up at the face, Zordon, watching as it pulses red again.

“The coins have chosen you,” Zordon says, looking down at Aubrey knowingly. “Now you must protect the Crystal, and all life on Earth.”

“Because we’re the Power Rangers?” Chloe laughs. “That’s the tits.”

“The… ALPHA I don’t understand this term.”

ALPHA shrugs. “I think it’s human slang, Zordon. It means something good.”

“This has to be a _joke_ ,” Stacie argues. “We’re talking to a fucking wall? In a spaceship under Old Campus. At _Barden_ , the most uninteresting place in the world, and I have a fucking wedgie. This is truly - ”

“SILENCE!” Zordon screams and a wave of nothingness hits her as Aubrey is lifted into the air.

She gasps for breath, suddenly on campus in front of the law building. She frowns in confusion at the stillness, the emptiness of the quad. She takes one step, then another, as a figure approaches in the distance.

“ _Dig_ ,” it whispers in Aubrey’s ear. She shivers. “ _Dig!_ ”

A metallic giant crushes the ground behind the figure, and it shoots closer in a flash of green light.

Aubrey flinches as a woman appears directly in front of her, ugly and terrifying, emanating an aura of green evil. Aubrey looks over her shoulder to run, but figures have grown out of the cement, Barden classmates, dead and turned to dusty ash.

Aubrey tries to scream as the woman reaches one long black fingernail to touch her face, sucking the air from her. She stumbles backwards, falling into the ashy figures behind her, to the ground, to her certain death -

Her back hits the hard interior of the spaceship and she gasps, uncertain and afraid, plunging back to reality. She pushes herself up, suddenly angry, and marches toward the face in the wall.

“Why would you show us such a nightmare?”

The face looms down at her. “It is not a nightmare,” Zordon responds gravely. “It is the future.”

“Who was that horrible woman?”

“Her name… is Gail Gruesoma.”

The small girl snorts. “Gail Gruesoma… what kind of name is that?”

Zordon frowns. “She is not to be taken lightly. She will create the monster Goldar, and he will rip the Zeo Crystal from the Earth, and all life on your planet will die. She must be stopped.”

“What? By us?” Chloe asks.

“When is she coming?” Stacie steps forward.

ALPHA throws their hands in the air. “She’s already here! My best guess is that we have eleven months to stop her.”

Aubrey gapes. “Eleven _months_?”

“Sorry, wait!” ALPHA flinches. “That was a miscalculation. Eleven days!”

“Days?” Emily squeaks.

“Wait,” the yellow-coined girl shouts toward Zordon. “This is ridiculous. So if we’re the Power Rangers and this is our ship, if I want to walk out those doors right now, will they open for me?”

Zordon nods. “Yes, of course.”

The girl grabs Stacie’s arm. “Come on, let’s go.” Chloe and Emily follow.

Aubrey blinks up at Zordon before hurrying after them.

“Aubrey!” Zordon calls and Aubrey pauses, turning back. “My team died defending the Crystal from Gail. That’s why I’m in this wall. ALPHA trapped me in the matrix just in case she came back one day.”

Aubrey stares up at the face, puzzled. “How… how did you know my name?”

“Because it’s you, Aubrey Posen. _You_ are the leader of the Power Rangers. _You_ are the Red Ranger, as I once was. Gail was a Ranger, too, and my friend. But she wanted more power. Now she is pure evil. She will stop at nothing to get the Crystal. You must bring back the other Rangers and _train_ so that you can stop Gail before she has the strength to create Goldar.”

Aubrey thins her lips. “This is absurd. I’m leaving. And I can only speak for myself, but - ”

“No,” Zordon urges. “You are the leader, and you speak for all of them. You know it is true. You can feel it. You were _born_ for this.”

Aubrey glares up at the face and stomps away, through the door and down the hallway. The stairs have reformed and she marches down them and out of the ship.

The rest of the group are sitting among the rocks of the cavern below the water wall.

“You waited,” Aubrey says in surprise. Emily smiles at her. “Even you,” Aubrey frowns at the small, yellow-coined girl. “Um. Right. I don’t know you’re name, who are you exactly?”

“That’s Darth Vader,” Emily pipes up.

The girl rolls her eyes. “I’m Beca. Beca Mitchell.”

Aubrey sighs. “Right. And you’re… Chloe?” She turns to the other girl, who nods. “I guess we don’t know each other.”

“I know you Aubrey!” Emily chirps.

“I know Stacie,” Chloe says.

“Right.” Aubrey looks around at all of them. “Nothing about this makes sense, but for some reason, we were all at the same place at the same time, and this _thing_ happened to us. I don’t know why and I can’t explain it, but I know the only way to find the answers we want is to come back. So tomorrow, i’ll be here at 6pm sharp. If you guys want to come, fine. If not, then that’s fine, too.”

She stares at all of them, then nods her head at Emily. “Come on, Em.”

Then she pushes off the ground as hard as she can and jumps, until she breaks through the water wall, and swims back to the surface, her new strength pushing her along.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training montage? Character exploration? A little bit of romantical development?

The thing about college is that Beca never actually even wanted to go. She wanted to go to LA, she wanted to make music, she wanted to do a lot of things.

Instead, she’s here, in this tiny dorm, music too loud in her headphones and staring up at the ceiling, yellow coin flipping absentmindedly through her fingers.

She can feel her roommate’s eyes glare at her every few minutes, but she doesn’t particularly give a fuck.

She’s thinking about the last time she skipped class, how her dad had stopped by to check up on her and found her just chilling in the dorm, thinking about what her life _could_ be like if she wasn’t stuck in this tiny college town with these annoying people and her _dad_.

“This doesn’t look like your philosophy class,” her dad had said, condescendingly raising his eyebrows at her, giving her that disappointed look that stopped having an effect on her when she was fifteen.

“I’m posing an important philosophical question,” Beca had responded. “If I don’t go to that class, will it still suck?”

“Beca,” her dad frowned, and she could practically feel her roommate’s discomfort pulsing in the room. Sorry Kimmy-Jin. “You’re going to give college a try. You’re going to join something and make friends, or I’m not helping you move to LA at the end of the year. Discussion over.”

There’d been more arguing and words to be had, but that was pretty much the conversation.

Beca can feel anger stirring in her stomach at the memory. Her dad thinks he can just tell her what to do, how to live her life. She squeezes the coin in her fingers so hard it hurts.

Then she smirks to herself.

If her dad could see what she’d gotten herself into now, what would he say?

She has to wonder about this bullshit with this Crystal. Say this Gail and Goldar _did_ exist. Should she care if they destroy this stupid campus?

Should she care about four girls she doesn’t even know? Thrown together because of... what? Some destiny or fate bullshit?

Beca rolls her eyes and tosses the coin toward her trash bin, not even watching to see if it lands among the Kleenex and Reese’s wrappers.

Fuck this whole Power Rangers thing. It’s not her problem. She’ll leave this stupid campus whether it’s destroyed or not. And nothing is going to keep her here.

Then the coin lands in her lap.

She slumps back into her pillow with a grunt.

//

A mile away, Chloe’s sprawled against the backdrop of her yoga mat. She’d been stretching, breathing into the silence of her apartment. Usually she likes her mornings. Tea and yoga and thinking.

It’s relaxing, even if she sometimes thinks about things she’d rather not think about.

This morning, all those thoughts are swirling in her head, a kind of fog she can’t solidify into shapes, too cloudy and murky to be cohesive.

Instead, her aloneness overwhelms her. She’s always alone. Not necessarily lonely, but always alone.

She’s been alone for six years.

Her apartment is quiet and cool, the shades drawn to keep the lighting low. She’s thinking of the cavern, the pool of water, the spaceship.

Four other girls, pushing her away from danger, pulling her toward an exit. Her hand holding another.

She’s thinking for the first time that the aloneness of her apartment is lonely. She wants to be back under the ground, among stalactites and damp air. She wants to find comfort in four other girls, strangers thrown together into an impossible situation.

She wants to feel life pulse under her footsteps, wants to save the place that saved her.

She wants to be a Power Ranger. She wants to go back.

Is it six yet?

//

Aubrey grits her teeth as she glances over her father’s email.

Another reminder to get her transfer applications in, a deliberate link to the Princeton application, as if she doesn’t have it bookmarked on her laptop, as if it isn’t constantly already an open tab on her web browser.

Another aggressive questioning about her grades.

She can feel the pressure constricting tighter in her chest, wrapping around her lungs and squeezing.

She slams her laptop shut and furiously grabs her bag, calling to Emily that she’s leaving. She jogs out of their apartment and down the hall, taking the stairs to the lobby. As quick as possible, she gets further from the email and closer to Old Campus.

Every step she takes across campus loosens the vice in her chest, floods air back into her lungs until she’s scrambling down a hole, running through a tunnel, and recklessly flinging herself over the edge of a subterranean cliff.

She hits the water hard, but not hard enough to do any damage to her newly strengthened body. There’s a rush of panic in her lungs as she swims down, but then she’s plunging through the impossible barrier and falling head first toward the cave floor.

She manages to flip herself mid-air and land in a crouch.

She’s still not used to this, to the way her body just instinctively knows what to do. She eases herself against the cave wall and to the ground, wringing out her wet hair.

She waits, but it’s not long until she hears a distant splash and Emily’s familiar face emerges from the water. Aubrey isn’t surprised; she was sure Emily would come. But the almost immediate appearance of Stacie, Chloe, and Beca behind her roommate sends Aubrey’s heart pattering in an unfamiliar way, warm and happy.

When gravity switches and Beca lets out a scream, her arms flailing wildly as she crashes to the ground (again), Aubrey even finds herself smiling.

//

“There are three rules to being a Power Ranger,” Zordon says, the five of them circled around on their platforms. Emily wishes she had paper and pencil to write this down.

“Number one,” Chloe sings. “I’m a girl in a world in which my only job is to marry rich!”

“What?” Zordon barks. “No. Number one. You must _never_ use your powers for personal gain. Number two - ”

“He’s after me ‘cause I’m a Schuyler Sister that elevates his status I’d have to be naive to set that aside maybe that is why -”

“NUMBER TWO. You must never escalate a fight unless your enemy forces you to.” Zordon squints down at them from his wall and Chloe smiles innocently. “Number three - ”

“I KNOW MY SISTER LIKE I KNOW MY OWN MIND YOU WILL NEVER FIND ANYONE AS TRUS -”

“ALPHA!” Zordon glares and Beca snorts. “I don’t understand what is happening.”

ALPHA comes forward, hands waving wildly. “My intelligence shows these are lyrics from a hit musical, _Hamilton_ , sir.”

“What is a musical?” Zordon frowns. “Never mind. FOCUS!”

Emily flinches back from the force of his voice but Chloe’s eyes shine playfully.

“Number three. You must never reveal your identity. Ever.”

“Ooh,” Emily beams. “We have secret identities.”

“Yes,” Zordon nods. “To assume your identities, you need to _morph_. Have any of you morphed before?”

They all shake their heads (Emily has no idea what morphing is), except for Chloe. “Only to David Guetta.” She looks at Beca coyly. “Titanium is my lady jam.”

Beca raises her eyebrows. “Great song, but TMI.”

Zordon sighs, but continues on as if nobody had spoken. “Standing in this circle, you can easily connect to the morphing grid. Can you feel it?”

“I’m not feeling it, Mr. Krabs,” Chloe murmurs. Next to her, Stacie laughs.

“You need to morph to get your armor.”

Emily gapes across the circle at Aubrey. “We get armor. _And_ secret identities. This is just like _Infinity War._ ”

“So are you gonna give us the armor or what?” Beca calls.

“You already have it.” Zordon nods. “It comes from within you.”

Emily looks down at herself incredulously. Comes from within her _where_? From her boobs? That would be… _awesome_.

“‘Kay, so how do we get it then?” Chloe asks.

“By connecting to each other and the morphing grid. Clear your minds.”

Emily tries to empty her mind but it’s _so_ hard when you’ve just been initiated into a superhero gang. She totally feels Peter Parker’s excitement in _Homecoming_ when he gave Tony that hug. It’s just really overwhelming. Still, she tries.

Next to her, Chloe has assumed a yoga pose (Emily doesn’t know which one, she doesn’t have the patience for yoga). Across from her, Aubrey’s eyes are narrowed in laser sharp focus. Emily thinks she looks really pretty, the lights from the morphing grid dancing across her cheeks.

_Focus, Emily._

She inhales and tries to concentrate. The morphing grid starts spinning and Emily feels a draft of wind on her face. She thinks it’s working. It’s totally working!

The lights shut down, disappearing in an instant.

“Uh.” Stacie looks down at herself. “Did it work?”

“ALPHA!” Zordon calls. “Why didn’t they morph?”

“Uh…” ALPHA frantically looks back and forth between the five of them. “I’m not sure, sir. It’s distressing. It might take some time.”

Zordon sighs. “Time? We don’t _have_ time.”

ALPHA wrings their hands. “Well, if they can’t morph, what are we supposed to do?”

“They’ll have to train without armor. They need to prepare.”

ALPHA looks at Zordon incredulously. Or at least that’s how Emily thinks ALPHA’s looking. It’s hard to tell the difference between robot expressions. “Without armor? But, sir, won’t that be incredibly dangerous? And very painful.”

“Take them down to the pit,” Zordon orders.

“The pit,” Emily squeaks. Her body floods with nervousness and she searches for something reassuring around them. She finds Aubrey’s eyes. “Aubs, I don’t wanna go to the pit. Also what’s the pit?”

//

Beca thinks the pit probably stands for Place-I’m-Terminated because it’s a dirty circle in an underground cave surrounded by dewy walls and crawling with literal scorpions.

They’re definitely going to die.

“Welcome to the pit!” ALPHA buzzes with excitement, metallic hands clapping together.

“ALPHA, begin the simulation exercise!” Zordon’s voice booms around them. Beca doesn’t like that guy.

“Exercise? What exercise?” Aubrey huffs.

In front of them, the cave floor begins to vibrate, the ground molding and growing into three giant rock figures. Beca eyes them skeptically.

“These are putties!” ALPHA informs them.

“Stupid name,” Beca murmurs.

“Oh, sweet,” Stacie grins and steps toward one of the figures. “Awesome interface! Hologram technology really hasn’t adva - ”

The putty swings its arm out and knocks into Stacie. She flies against the cave wall and rolls to the floor with a grunt.

“Shit,” she hisses, blood trailing from her forehead. “Not a hologram.”

“Stacie?” Emily frowns. “You okay?”

“All good,” Stacie grunts, pushing herself up.

Beca shifts uneasily on her feet.

“These,” Zordon’s voice says, “are a simulation of Gail’s army. You have to get through them to get to her. This is why you must morph into your armor. If Gail becomes strong enough to build her army, it will be the beginning of the end.”

“That’s not ominous at all,” Beca scoffs, but next to her, Aubrey’s narrowing her eyes in concentration and Stacie’s steeling herself, her fists lifted as if she didn’t just get her ass handed to her by a not-so-silly putty. “Okay,” she mutters. “So we’re doing this.”

“Rangers,” Zordon says gravely. “Welcome to training.”

“I’m so excited.” ALPHA says. “It’s gonna be... the tits!”

//

Training is _not_ the tits, Chloe decides.

Sure, sometimes she gets to spar with Beca and it’s _so_ fun to make her flustered when they’re wrestling, but the putties are kicking her ass. She has bruises everywhere, she’s constantly caked in cave dirt, and no amount of yoga can relieve her sore muscles.

Aubrey marks off the days with a rock on the cave wall, one after the other until they’ve been working almost a week.

They still can’t morph, which is making Aubrey irritated and short-tempered. Chloe has tried to tell her to channel her inner _chi_ by assuming _tree prayer_ , but Aubrey just glares at her. Even Chloe’s peaceful demeanor is tested by the constant ass-kicking and she finds herself wanting to strangle ALPHA more often than not.

“See, like this! Center of gravity, people!” ALPHA demonstrates for the _eighth_ time how to tackle a putty. Chloe wants to point out that _their_ putties are ten feet tall while ALPHA’s is ALPHA-sized, but she doesn’t think it’ll matter.

“C’mon, Beale,” Beca smirks at her, hooking her finger toward Chloe. “Ready to fall flat on your face again?”

“Not a chance, Beca. I’m on top this time.”

On the other side of the cave, Emily hoots in triumph when she manages to land a hit on ALPHA while boxing with the robot. There’s a grunt as a putty knocks Stacie’s feet out from under her and she slams into the ground with a curse. Aubrey seems to be holding her own against two putties at once.

Chloe cracks her neck and surges forward with a grin, her hand lunging for Beca’s sternum. Beca blocks it easily and retaliates with a quick jab to Chloe’s stomach.

“Oomph,” Chloe doubles over, but quickly straightens up. “Nice one.”

Beca just smirks, her yellow t-shirt darkening as she sweats. Chloe’s noticed that Beca has started wearing bits of yellow here and there, as if subconsciously settling into her new identity day by day.

“You look like you need a shower,” Chloe comments lightly. “These workouts sure can cause a girl to sweat a lot.”

Beca eyes her warily. “What about it?”

“What if I joined you?”

Beca frowns and spins into a kick, lodging a shot on Chloe’s back. Chloe grunts, but her side-step takes away most of the force.

“What if you just shut up and fight me?”

Behind Chloe, there’s another muffled thump and Stacie groans. “This so doesn’t _rock_.”

“I hope the putties gang up on you for bad puns,” Aubrey grumbles.

“My legs feel like putty,” Stacie shoots back. “I could take these guys if only I were _boulder_.”

Beca scowls over Chloe’s shoulder and Chloe takes advantage, going low and pummeling into Beca. They both go down in a cloud of cave-dust.

Beca spits dirt and hair out of her mouth, glaring at Chloe. “Dude.”

“Told you I’d top.”

“Nice job, Chloe!” ALPHA claps and Chloe beams. Beca’s scowl deepens and she rolls, taking Chloe with her. She pins Chloe’s hands to the cave floor.

“Now who’s on top,” she growls, then seems to realize what she said. “I mean. Whatever.”

Beca’s cheeks are red, from exertion or embarrassment Chloe’s not sure, but she looks pretty, her hair up in a high bun, sweat beading on her forehead. She looks… _soft_ , somehow.

Maybe it’s the subterranean lighting.

Beca scrunches her nose, then eases off of Chloe, offering her hand down to help Chloe up.

“That’s enough for today,” Zordon’s voice shakes the cave. He sounds disappointed, which Chloe thinks is totally unfair. They’re getting way better. “Training will continue tomorrow after you can hopefully finally morph.” The tinge of doubt in his voice makes Chloe want to punch a putty in its private parts.

She tries not to show it though.

She leaves with everyone, saying their standard goodbyes and heading off toward wherever they go when they split ways. She kisses Beca on the cheek as she leaves though.

Just for fun.

//

It’s annoying that on top of all this save-the-world, get-your-ass-kicked-to-Tuesday junk, Beca still has to deal with the shitshow that is _college_.

You’d think this Gail Gruesoma bitch might be a little considerate about Beca’s upcoming midterms, but apparently not. Between her actual classes, training in the pit, and the exhaustion that comes with that, she barely has any time to study. Not that she cares or anything, but if she flunks out, her dad for sure isn’t helping her get to LA after this miserable year is over.

If that’s still an option anyway…

Needless to say, she’s barely managing to make it through each day, and only then because she’s taken to drinking a cup of coffee every other hour, much to the amusement of Jesse, the barista at the campus coffee shop, which is where she’s headed when she stumbles across a scene that makes her blood boil.

Beca has always been a bit of a hot-head, but thanks to her increased exhaustion levels, her anger seems to be simmering just below the surface at all times these days, so it really shouldn’t surprise her when she feels a flash of fury behind her eyes when she sees a girl in a Tri-Delt nantucket pour an iced coffee over the head of Beca’s new superhero teammate, Stacie Conrad.

The caramel colored liquid streaks down Stacie’s face and seeps into her pink tank top, leaving Stacie standing hunched over in shock.

_Do something_ , Beca thinks. _You have super powers, punch that girl in the boob!_

But Stacie just glares at the girl, shaking off a few ice cubes that have lodged on her shoulders and wiping the coffee from her eyes.

“Oops,” the girl says, her voice sickly-sweet. “My bad.”

Beca’s at Stacie’s side in an instant, before she can think about what she’s doing, her arm swinging through the air -

She’s wrenched backward before she can punch that girl in the face. She whips around to see Stacie’s fingers curled around her bicep, holding her back.

“Stop,” Stacie murmurs. “Not worth it.”

Her eyes blaze angrily, a dark green-and-gold Beca’s never noticed. Beca reluctantly drops her arm, suddenly realizing they have the attention of everyone in the vicinity, students who have stopped walking to watch the scene, studiers whose books have become forgotten in the grass.

Beca scowls at the girl, then grabs Stacie by the shoulder and pulls her away. The girl waggles her fingers in a wave, which Beca returns with her middle finger.

“You alright?” She asks Stacie when they’re no longer in sight of anyone who’d witnessed the scene.

“Yeah,” Stacie rolls her eyes. She frowns as she twists a coffee-soaked piece of hair around her finger. “I’ve had worse.”

Beca thinks about asking what could be worse and _why_ shit like that might happen in the first place, but then she realizes it doesn’t matter. She knows Stacie (kind of) and she’s pretty sure she couldn’t do something to deserve anything like what just happened.

She sighs and unties her yellow and black flannel from around her waist. “Here.”

Stacie takes the shirt gratefully, setting down her bag and pulling the shirt over her pink tank top. “Thanks.”

“I, uh, was on my way to get a coffee, but I’m guessing you’re not in the mood for that, so. You want to get some lunch? Or maybe you want to shower? My dorm is really close, I could order us a pizza or something.”

Stacie smiles thinly at her. “Shower sounds good.

Beca loans Stacie a towel and her shower carrier to use in the communal bathroom and orders them some food. The Pizza Hut guy gets there just before Stacie comes back from the shower. She’s in her jean shorts and Beca’s flannel, her wet hair twisted over her shoulder.

Beca’s like, noticed before, she’s not blind, but Stacie’s unfairly hot. Beca clears her throat and offers her a slice of pizza.

They settle into Beca’s bed and Beca pulls up _The Office_ on Netflix. They spend the next hour laughing at the show and eating pizza until Stacie looks at her.

“This is the first time I’ve hung out with any of you guys outside of Ranger stuff,” Stacie says. “It’s nice.”

Beca holds back a smile. “Only because there’s pizza.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s not the same when I’m not kicking your ass. You know I like it rough.” Stacie smirks.

Beca majorly rolls her eyes.”You and Chloe are peas in a pod.”

“Bruises mean you had a good time, Bec. It’s just a fact.”

“I’m kicking you out of my bed.”

“Impossible,” Stacie grins. “Nobody’s ever kicked me out of bed.”

Beca snorts. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“Bet I can convince you to let me stay.” Stacie’s eyes crinkle mischievously and Beca can’t help it - she looks down at Stacie’s lips. That seems to be all the encouragement Stacie needs because she leans toward Beca, slow and purposeful.

Beca’s breath catches in her throat, her eyes fluttering shut as Stacie’s breath ghosts over her lips.

The door opens forcefully and Beca jumps back, her eyes flashing open as Kimmy-Jin walks in with a gaggle of her friends from the Korean Student Union.

“Uh,” Beca coughs.

Stacie bounces off the bed like nothing had just been about to happen. “Hi, you must be Beca’s roommate. I’m Stacie.” Kimmy-Jin just stares at the two of them. Stacie frowns. “Right. Well, uh. I better get going. Thanks for everything Beca. I’ll see you tonight.”

She gives Beca a meaningful look before leaving, the door shutting softly behind her.

Kimmy-Jin and her friends settle in front of her TV and Beca slumps back on her bed, wondering what the hell just happened.

//

Aubrey had forgotten she wasn’t alone in her apartment, which is unheard of for anytime she and Emily are both home at the same time.

Emily is always playing music, singing, clanging around in the kitchen. Aubrey _likes_ the quiet, but she’s gotten so used to Emily’s background noise over the past years, that she almost misses it when it’s gone.

She finds herself wondering when Emily’s going to be home until she hears a loud _thump_ from Emily’s room and jolts herself out of her desk chair.

“Oops,” Aubrey hears through their shared wall.

Aubrey hesitantly steps out of her room and over to Emily’s door. She knocks gently. “Um, everything okay? Can I come in?”

“Everything’s fine! Yes.”

Aubrey eases the door open, jerking back in surprise when she sees Emily dangling from the ceiling. “What? I… Emily, what are you doing?”

“Science,” Emily explains, her hair falling around her face as she leans her head back to look at Aubrey. Aubrey blinks, trying to take in the scene in front of her.

Maps cover the walls and ceiling, yarn and push-pins criss-crossing in pathways from wall to wall. Emily’s somehow managed to drape her legs over a pull-up bar (where did that even come from?) that’s fastened to the ceiling. She has one hand on the ceiling, the other dangling toward the floor. Right below her on the ground is her phone, clearly just dropped from her fingers as she hoists herself up doing… science.

“What on Earth?” Aubrey spins around, trying to focus on one thing, but it’s difficult. There’s just so much going on, as if Emily’s mind exploded in a physical manifestation all over the room. Her brain finally centers on a few words on the left wall.

BARDEN UNIVERSITY.

Underneath is a cardinal compass, and Aubrey finally understands. She’s looking at a map of the campus.

“Why are you… mapping?”

Aubrey drifts around the room, trying to make sense of the connections Emily’s clearly made, but she can’t make heads or tails of anything.

“I think I can find the location of the Crystal,” Emily says, her eyes shining with excitement. Or possibly from hanging upside down. Aubrey can’t be sure which.

“The crystal?”

  
“The Zeo Crystal.”

Aubrey nods, looking at Emily in wonder. “ALPHA said the information needed to triangulate its location was lost.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I think I saw the ancient layout in the morphing grid.” Emily grins widely, which makes her look like some weird clown while she’s upside down. Aubrey can’t help but smile. “I’ve been comparing it to the campus to see if I can find it. I think I’ll know soon.”

“Wow.” Aubrey’s used to Emily impressing her, but this is something beyond her usual standards. Looking at Emily, swinging from the ceiling and smiling happily, Aubrey’s entire body feels numb and soft, the way it does when she has a Novocaine shot at the dentist. “That’s really something, Em.”

“Thanks!” She scrunches her nose cutely. “Aubs, you look _so_ pretty from this angle. I mean you’re always pretty, but you look like one of Wonder Woman’s Amazons right now.”

Aubrey glances away, slightly embarrassed. “Thanks?”

“Come here.”

She moves back so she’s in front of Emily. Face to face like this, Aubrey can see Emily’s cheeks are flushed a bright red. She reaches out to touch one with her fingers, then holds back. Sometimes she forgets Emily doesn’t like to be touched that much.

She drops her hand back down.

“Oh my God,” Emily gasps, voice hushed and excited. “Aubrey can I kiss you? It’s always been a dream of mine to do the Spider Man kiss.”

“The Spider Man kiss?” Aubrey feels like there are already spiders in her stomach from how much it’s crawling at Emily’s question.

“Yes! You know, when he’s hanging upside and kisses MJ. It’s so romantic.”

Aubrey’s neck burns suddenly. It must be a weird side effect of her new powers.

“Romantic?”

Emily nods, shifting so her knees clutch tighter to the pull-up bar. She swings down farther, her hands gripping the bar, her hair falling toward the floor. “It’s okay if you don’t want to, I just realized that was a weird question. I got excited because I might never have the chance to do the Spider Man kiss again so then I had to - ”

Aubrey kisses her, her bottom lip sliding over Emily’s bottom lip, her fingers clutching the bottom of her own shirt in order to keep them to herself. Emily squeaks and her nose bumps Aubrey’s chin, their teeth clashing briefly. Aubrey’s entire body feels on fire, her stomach swooping under her the same way it did the night they found the coins and fell through the floor of that house. Vertigo sweeps her up and she gasps, her eyes flying open.

She steps back.

“Oh. Wow.” Emily still has her eyes closed, a smile breaking over her face. Her eyes flutter open and Aubrey thinks she might drown in their warmth. She shivers involuntarily.

“Well?” Aubrey manages to ask, her voice an octave higher than she’s used to hearing in her own ears.

Emily giggles cutely. “That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever done.”

Aubrey knows she’s blushing. She knows she’s staring. She can’t stop. Her lips tingle and Emily’s giving her this look, the look she always has given her, like Aubrey is beautiful and perfect and great just the way she is without changing one thing or trying too hard.

“Good,” she finally manages to say. She finally brings her fingers up to touch Emily’s cheek. It’s warm and soft. Then, before she loses her courage, she leans in and kisses Emily again, quick and sweet. “Good luck with the science.”

She leaves Emily hanging upside down, shutting the door gently behind her.

She feels like she’s glowing as warm and red as her Ranger coin.

//

Emily’s head buzzes. It’s always buzzing a little, but right now it’s as loud in her ears as it’s ever been.

Her lips tingle, her face feels warm.

Emily has only kissed one person in her life. That was in high school when she briefly had a boyfriend named Benji. They dated up to junior prom, but he graduated that summer and Emily never really dated anyone since then.

She’s never really thought much about kissing. Okay, she’s thought about it. But more in an abstract way, as something that happens in books and movies and to other people but not to her. Emily doesn’t like being touched very much. It’s okay as long as she knows it’s going to happen, and if she really trusts the person, but usually she tries to avoid it.

She knows she’s… weird. She knows she’s on the spectrum and she’s not necessarily what other high schoolers would call normal. But this is _her_ normal. She likes fish and music and training to be a Ranger. Her brain buzzes and her body always jitters and she doesn’t quite understand jokes sometimes.

So when it came to dating, she just never really thought about it. Sure, Tony and Pepper could kiss, but that was the movies. Peter and MJ could kiss, but that was superhero fiction.

The thing is, Emily is a superhero now, too. And sometimes her body tingles when she thinks about Aubrey and her other new friends. Especially when she thinks about Aubrey. Mostly always when she thinks about Aubrey.

Kissing Aubrey.

Holy Bageezus, she just kissed Aubrey!

The thought is so shocking she loses her grip on her pull-up bar and finds herself hitting the floor with a loud _thump_.

“Ow,” she murmurs, but it’s mostly out of habit. It kind of doesn’t hurt thanks to her new super strength. She lays there, staring up at the ceiling, grinning to herself, her eyes following the trail of yarn she’d been studying before Aubrey had come in.

She’d just cracked one of the last calculations and had been trying to figure out the coordinates on the map. But as she stares up at the blue yarn above her, her new stellar eyesight zeroes in on the spot she’d been looking for.

She shoots up, hurrying to her computer to type in the coordinates.

Holy stars, she figured it out!

The location of the Zeo Crystal.

She breaks down in hysterical laughter when the search loads up on the screen.

Could it be true? The source of all humanity and life _there_?

At Pizza Hut?

Whoa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when will i update this again???? who knows


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/10 plot... 9/10 CHARACTER INTERACTION that didn't happen in the movie bc i don't need this story to progress anywhere if i don't want it to. also some kissing. yw

Beca isn’t used to people staring at her. She doesn’t exactly stick out in a crowd. She’s short and small and she doesn’t usually wear anything that draws attention.

But now, she can feel eyes on her. They follow her as she moves between breakfast stations in the dining hall, from fruit to cereal to juice. The weight of their collective gaze weighs on her body as she finds a table and plunks her tray down.

When she looks up, she catches someone’s eye, but they quickly glance away.

She sighs, her fingers tenderly probing the left side of her face. She knows why they’re staring. Not because she’s wearing a yellow beanie instead of her usual black. Not because she’s suddenly got the looks of Stacie Conrad, whose presence attracts appreciative stares everywhere she goes.

No, it’s because Aubrey kicked her ass into the next dimension yesterday and the entire left side of her face is swollen and bruised.

She consequently looks like she barely survived some near-fatal accident, and considering that’s exactly what happened _last week_ and she hadn’t even had a bruise then, she finds the whole thing almost comical.

Well, she would. If her face didn’t hurt like a bitch.

She carefully spoons some cereal into her mouth, chewing slowly so as to not pressure her jaw more than necessary. It still hurts a little, so she casts her attention elsewhere, desperate for distraction.

Her eyes fall on one of the TVs in the dining room, where the morning news is playing. Beca lets herself zone out, watching some political commentary she doesn’t care about. She mindlessly eats her cereal until something on the screen has her pausing with her spoon halfway to her mouth.

“ _... makes this the third person this week to be robbed and left for dead in the area. Authorities have linked the loss of gold to each crime scene as the calling card of the murderer. Barden police urge caution and calm in the face of what is being dubbed “Barden’s Gold Killer.” Anyone with information on these crimes is asked to come forward. You can call the hotline at…”_

Beca’s Cocoa Puffs slide off her spoon, landing back in her bowl with a quiet _plop_.

The news anchor is still talking, but it all sounds like buzzing in her ears.

Gail hasn’t made a direct play for the crystal yet, but Beca knows, beyond doubt, that this can't be a coincidence.

//

“... at least three murders, according to the news. But there could be more. They were completely robbed of their gold!”

Chloe puffs out a breath as they hike farther into the subterranean tunnel than they’ve been yet. ALPHA makes a humming sound as Beca goes on about what she saw on the news.

“Yes,” ALPHA says. “If Gail manages to get enough gold, she’ll create Goldar and rip the Crystal from the ground. It’ll be like ten thousand nuclear bombs raining over the planet!”

Chloe laughs. “Is that supposed to freak us out? Try adding a little more apocalyptic terror.”

“Seriously,” Aubrey scowls, scrambling up the jagged rock after their android pal. “You keep making this harder, but we’re busting our asses here. I mean look at Beca’s face. Can’t you throw us a bone?”

“Yeah,” Beca huffs. “Look at my face.”

“Hey, bruises are hot,” Chloe winks at her. Beca rolls her eyes.

ALPHA finally stops in a large cavern, even bigger than the pit. “Yes, yes. I see you, er, _busting your asses_. Which is why I’m giving you some inspiration! Get ready for your life to change forever.”

Emily gasps as ALPHA gestures grandly and Chloe feels her eyes widening. In front of them is a collection of enormous robots.

“These are Zords!” ALPHA shakes with excitement. “They take the form of the strongest creatures on the planet, and when these were formed, dinosaurs reigned supreme.”

Chloe’s eyes finds the black one, a giant mastodon. It towers above her, fierce and terrifying. She immediately loves it. Can she name it? She’s thinking something like Louise.

“The Zords will be an extension of you. Their power is all but limitless,” ALPHA is saying. Chloe barely hears. She touches her fingers to the cool metal of her new friend, Louise. “But… you’re not ready, yet. When you morph, your armor will let you become one with your Zord. So let’s get to work. Today is the day you become Rangers! I can feel it!”

Chloe may be imagining it, but she swears Louise vibrates under her gentle touch.

//

“That was awesome,” Emily whispers excitedly as they head back to the ship. “Ahhh. I just want it to be time for us to morph!”

Aubrey nods next to her, but Emily can tell she’s preoccupied. Maybe she’s thinking about the Zords, or Gail’s murders, or her dad.

Emily would give anything to be able to know what Aubrey thinks of when her face goes blank in that way, but she knows Aubrey wouldn’t like that. She’ll tell Emily if she wants to.

“You have to remember that in today’s training lesson, the important thing is to…” ALPHA trails off, looking behind them. “Wait, where’s Chloe?”

Emily turns around, but Chloe’s not there. Aubrey huffs. “Great. She bailed.”

Emily hears a distant thump and the scraping of metal. She frowns.

“What’s that?” Stacie murmurs, her head tilted curiously. There’s a _boom_ and the cavern shakes ominously. A few rocks break loose from the ceiling, cluttering to the ground around them.

The loud noise comes again, and the scraping seems to be getting clearer. The cavern shakes fervently.

“It sounds like…” Beca eyes widen as the right hand wall blows to pieces. Emily screams as something crashes through, sending rocks flying. A gigantic contraption bursts into the cave, whipping around in a circle. Emily barely ducks in time as it soars over her head. It lands next to her, throwing her across the cavern and into one of the remaining walls.

She slumps to the ground as the Zord spins to a stop.

“Ow,” she murmurs. Stacie hurries over and helps her to her feet.

“Hey, you okay?”

Emily peers up through her hair to see Chloe stumbling from the Zord, eyes dazed. “Uh, whoa. Shoot, sorry. Okay, my bad. That’s… that’s on me.”

“Dude, what’s your problem?” Beca calls, picking herself up off the dusty cave floor.

Aubrey storms up to her, her finger poking Chloe in the chest. “Chloe, what the hell? You could’ve killed yourself. Or us! You sent Emily flying!”

“I’m fine,” Emily murmurs.

“She’s fine,” Chloe says, shaking her head and laughing. “We’re good.”

“No, we’re not!” Aubrey grabs her by the shoulder, giving her a rough shake. “Get your head out of your ass.”

Chloe glares. “Hey, whoa. I said sorry. Don’t be so controlling, you’re not the boss here. Get off, Aubrey.” Chloe pushes her and Aubrey stumbles backward.

Time seems to freeze for a second. Emily watches as Aubrey gasps in disbelief, her face twisting in anger and hurt. Then she puts her hands on Chloe’s chest and shoves her.

“Hey, whoa, guys! Stop!” Emily whips her head around as Chloe lunges toward Aubrey and Aubrey sidesteps, her Ranger training kicking in. “Guys!”

“Chloe, stop,” Beca says at the same time as Stacie shouts, “Aubrey, don’t!”

The two of them are trying to pull Aubrey and Chloe away from each other before they can do more than shove. Emily feels anxiety swirling in her stomach. “Don’t fight!”

Everything slows down, and Emily sees it all clearly. The hurt and fear on Aubrey’s face, the anger and resentment on Chloe’s. She sees Beca and Stacie pleading with them, their eyes worried and dark.

Emily feels anguish burst in her heart. She loves them all so much. They shouldn’t fight.

“STOP!” She yells, sliding in between them, her hands landing solidly on their chests and shoving. “Stop fighting, please!”

They jerk back, staring at her, their hands falling to their sides. Emily sighs in relief.

“Dude,” Beca whispers, her lips quirking upward in a grin. “That’s dope.”

“What?” Emily frowns, her heart beating fast. Is she bleeding from when she hit the cave wall? She lifts her hand to touch her forehead, but freezes halfway. Her hand looks scaly and blue.

She glances down incredulously. Her entire body is blue.

That’s when she realizes… she did it!

She morphed!

“Whoa!”

“Emily, you did it!” Aubrey’s gazing at her in wonder. Elation tingles in Emily’s toes.

Chloe grins, reaching toward her. Emily steps backward as Chloe’s hand tries to grab hers. “No, uh, Chloe, don’t - don’t touch it!” Before Chloe’s hand can make contact, though, the armor melts away, leaving Emily’s bare hand shining in the muted cave light.

“Ah, no!” Chloe frowns as Emily pouts out a muted “nooooo.”

Beca gasps. “Where’d it go?”

“Bring it back, Em,” Chloe urges. “Bring it back!”

“Uh.”

“Get out,” Zordon’s disappointed voice echoes through the cavern. Emily flinches. “Training is over for today. Go home.”

Stacie whips her head around, looking at the ceiling of the cave like she can see the source of the disembodied voice through it. “I’m sorry, did you not _see_ that? Emily morphed!”

“Do it again,” Zordon challenges. “Any of you.”

Aubrey looks at Emily expectantly. “Em,” she whispers. “How did you do it?”

Chloe nods eagerly. “Show us how, Em!”

Anxiety blooms in her chest. She squints her eyes in concentration, but she doesn’t know what she did! She just didn’t want them to fight. She was scared and it just happened… she doesn’t know how!

“Come on, Em, do it again,” Chloe says.

Emily feels the beginning of tears in her eyes. “I’m trying! I can’t!”

“Okay, it’s fine,” Aubrey murmurs gently. Comfortingly. She looks up and calls to Zordon. “Alright, we don’t know how!”

“That’s what I thought,” Zordon says. “If you can’t morph, then you can’t be Rangers.”

Emily blinks back her tears. She _did_ morph, though. But _how?_ Why can’t she do it again?

“Go home!” Zordon booms again.

Beca kicks the dirt in frustration. Chloe flings her hands in the air. Aubrey sighs and marches back into the ship.

Only Stacie stands there, unmoving, glaring upward toward the place they imagine Zordon to be. Then she tentatively squeezes Emily’s shoulders, looking Emily in the eyes. “That was great, Em. Fuck him. You kicked ass.”

Emily quivers under Stacie’s touch. “I don’t know how I did it,” she whispers. She’s acutely aware of the heat of Stacie’s fingers on her arms, her kind eyes. She tingles all over, and she doesn’t hate it. She wants to sink into it and that scares her.

“That’s okay. We’ll get it. I know it.” Stacie’s smile is reassuring and Emily finds herself nodding. “Come on,” Stacie says. “Let’s get out of here. Why don’t you finally show me that fish of yours?”

Emily perks up. “Tupac? I’d like that.”

“Me, too,” Stacie winks.

And Emily’s anxiety melts away.

//

Rage is a familiar feeling to Aubrey, but it’s usually overpowered by shame and disappointment. She’s used to feeling angry at authority figures being upset with her performances - story of her life. She disappoints, they yell, she feels a surge of anger that quickly morphs into shame; she can do better. She can always do better.

This time, though, there is no shame. Just rage.

Probably because it’s not about her; it’s about Emily.

Emily _morphed._ That’s what this has been about hasn’t it? And Zordon - God he’s as bad as her father - actually maybe worse - because Emily at least did what he’s been trying to get them to do, and Zordon still has the _audacity_ to tell them to _get out_.

Aubrey can handle that. She’s used to it.

The disappointment and shame on Emily’s face? _That_ she can’t handle.

She feels blinded by fury as she stomps back into the ship, ready to tell Zordon exactly where he can stick his bodyless head.

“... Aubrey’s team is failing. I shall destroy Gail myself. ALPHA, there must be a way to free me from this wall!”

Aubrey scowls at the voice ringing through the metallic hallways as she turns the corner, _Aubrey is failing failing failing_ echoing in her brain.

“That’s the irony, Sir,” ALPHA is saying as the pair comes into view. “You need the Rangers to morph. You’d be able to harness the power and come back through the morphing grid.”

“There must be another way! I can’t - ”

“Can’t what?” Aubrey stalks through the doorway, crossing her arms defiantly. “Can’t wait for us silly girls to morph so you can come back to life? Is that all this has been about?”

Zordon glares, his massive profile sliding across the pixelated wall until it’s directly in front of her. “Of course not. This has only ever been about stopping Gail and protecting the crystal.”

“Don’t underestimate my team,” Aubrey spits out. “Emily morphed, and the rest of us will, too.”

“You can’t stop Goldar! You’re barely a team.”

“And you can? Because you were so successful before.”

Zordon’s face shakes with anger. “I _died_ protecting the crystal and burying the Ranger coins. I’d hoped they’d find the next _real_ Rangers, those worthy of protecting Earth.”

Aubrey tightens her jaw, her whole body rigid. “Well sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t need to stand here and have you tell me I’m a failure. I can go home and get that.”

“You need me, Aubrey.” Zordon yells. “You need me freed from this wall to help you lead this team.”

Aubrey shakes her head, turning her back on Zordon’s frustration. “No. Your team is dead and you’re just as scared as we are.” She glances back over her shoulder. “Talk down to my team again and you’ll never leave that wall. You can count on that.”

She spins on her heel and leaves Zordon staring after her in silence, her red anger lingering behind her.

//

Chloe can tell something’s wrong when Aubrey finally emerges from the tunnel in the pool. The four of them have been sitting and waiting for her, doing their best Zordon imitations. They’d been laughing, but when Aubrey pushes herself out of the rubble that covers the tunnel, they all stop.

“What happened?” Chloe asks.

Aubrey’s lips tighten. Her fingers grip at themselves. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, listen,” Chloe says. “Do you guys want to hang out? Maybe order some food and do something non-Ranger related for once?”

Emily beams. “Stacie’s coming over to see my fish. You all can come if you want. But maybe just visit him one at a time? I think he gets nervous. And only if it’s okay with Aubrey, too.”

Chloe glances at Aubrey, watching as she begins to soften when she looks at Emily. “Yeah,” Aubrey nods. “I have to run and pick something up at the library, but we can all go back to our place. I’ll meet you guys.”

“I’ll grab some pizza.” Chloe nudges Beca next to her. “How ‘bout you, Becs? You in?”

Beca rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “Yeah, sounds good. Can’t trust your crazy ass to get the pizza alone anyway. You’ll probably get something disgusting like Hawaiian.”

“I like Hawaiian,” Emily pouts and they all share a smile.

They split ways, Stacie and Emily off to Emily and Aubrey’s place, Aubrey to the library, and Beca and Chloe to get the pizza.

Chloe knows she should feel some kind of worry at the fact that the end of the world could be in like, two days, but she doesn’t. It’s a Friday and the setting sun is painting the horizon with thick brushstrokes and she’s with Beca.

She’s happy.

“You’re smiling like an insane person,” Beca comments as they walk toward the pizza shop on the edge of campus.

“It’s good to smile,” Chloe says. “Hasn’t anyone told you that it means you’re happy? Maybe you should try it some time.”

Beca snorts. “Mmm, better pass. Wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

“I always have the wrong idea,” Chloe smirks.

Beca shakes her head in amusement, smiling despite herself. It makes Chloe’s happiness spread.

They walk along, chatting about nothing. Beca’s going off on some tangent about her music theory class when she stops mid-sentence, her eyes squinting off into the distance. She scowls and Chloe follows her gaze to a slim, blonde girl sipping on an iced coffee and texting as she walks.

“You know her?” Chloe asks.

“No,” Beca admits. “But I saw her dump her iced coffee all over Stacie the other day…”

“She what?”

Beca nods. “Yeah, dude, it was fucked. Stacie didn’t say why, but apparently stuff like that has happened before.”

Realization dawns on Chloe and she suddenly knows that girl, recognizes her from her Bio lecture.

“Oh.”

Beca side-eyes her. “You know something?”

“Yeah.” Chloe frowns. “But if you don’t know already, then it’s kind of Stacie’s thing to tell, you know?”

Beca hesitates, then nods. “Yeah, I get that.” She watches as the girl gets too far away to see anymore. Then she kicks at the ground a little. “I just, like, don’t get it. Why would a person do something like that? Stacie’s, you know, cool. Or whatever.”

Chloe chuckles. “She is. She’s definitely someone worth knowing.”

Beca hums. “She tried to kiss me.”

“Oh.” Chloe raises an eyebrow at Beca, liking how the setting sun shines in her brown hair. “Uh. Is that good? I mean, did you want her to?”

Beca shrugs. “Not until she was going to.”

Chloe nods. She gets that. “So why didn’t you?”

“My roommate walked in.”

“Bummer.” Chloe laughs. “Well, that wouldn’t have stopped me.”

Beca stops walking and Chloe pauses. “What?”

“What?”

Beca stares at her. “What do you mean, it wouldn’t have stopped you?”

“From kissing you.”

Beca blinks. “From kissing me?”

“Yeah?” Chloe laughs again. “Why? You want me to?”

She’s joking, but Beca blushes. “I didn’t until you asked me that.”

Chloe should be surprised, she thinks, but she almost isn’t. She rocks forward on her toes, humming in anticipation. Then she moves closer, first one step, then another, until her nose is brushing Beca’s. Beca’s shaky breath is warm on Chloe’s skin. Chloe grins, then presses their lips together, softly, until Beca’s fingers land on her hip.

She adjusts, pushing more firmly against Beca, caught up in Beca’s thumb on her hip bone, the way Beca smells like Spring air and coffee.

She pulls back before she takes it too far.

“Come on,” she says, loving how Beca’s cheeks are red and her eyes wide with surprise. She’s beautiful. “Before the pizza gets cold.”

She tugs on Beca’s sleeve, laughing when Beca lets herself be pulled along with no eyerolls or complaints.

//

“He’s a bottom feeder so you can just drop them right in.”

Stacie smiles a little as she sprinkles a few peas into the tank. “He really eats peas? What did you say he was again?”

“A tiger pleco.” Emily leans down to watch as the fish drifts from behind a rockcave. “He also likes algae and sometimes melon, which is weird. I think that’s a gross combination, but he seems to like it.”

Stacie hums thoughtfully, admiring the fish’s stripes. “He’s a handsome guy.”

Emily glances at her in surprise. “Aubrey thinks he’s ugly.”

“Well,” Stacie says, giving Emily a soft smile. “Maybe he’s just not her type.”

Emily scrunches her nose in confusion. “Her type?” Then her mouth falls open and she laughs lightly. “Oh, you’re joking. Yeah, maybe he isn’t. But he’s mine.”

Emily gazes happily at the fish and Stacie feels her heart flutter strangely. She takes a step back, looking around Emily’s room for a distraction.

The walls are covered with marine science articles. One wall has a large tapestry of a humpback whale. The desk is clean and organized, except for one corner, which is littered with several maps. Stacie steps closer to look, but she’s sidetracked by a picture on Emily’s vanity.

She picks up the frame, smiling absentmindedly as she takes in the scene. It’s Emily and Aubrey taking a selfie in front of a shark tank, probably at the local aquarium. Aubrey’s smiling genuinely, but Emily’s looking off in the distance, her mouth open wide.

“I kept getting distracted by the jellyfish,” Emily says over her shoulder, and Stacie jumps. She sets the photo back down. “They’re bioluminescent.”

“Yeah,” Stacie nods. “I think about half of jellyfish species are.”

“Not the ones in Spongebob,” Emily frowns. “Well, there’s that one episode where they glow and change colors, but that’s not scientifically accurate. But Spongebob is fiction, so I guess it’s okay. None of it is. I mean, a squirrel living underwater? Yeah right.”

Stacie laughs. “You’re something else, Emily. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“Sure. Usually they tell me I’m a freak.” Stacie feels her entire demeanor sag, but Emily shrugs, offering a gentle smile. “Maybe I’m just not their type.”

A whirlpool of feelings circles in Stacie’s stomach, anger and sadness and love. “Maybe.” She sits on Emily’s bed, looking at her friend thoughtfully. “People say things about me, too.”

“Really?” Emily raises her eyebrows in question. “What kind of things?”

“Well, to put it mildly, they say everyone is my type, as long as they’re breathing, and even then it’s a gamble.”

Emily stares. “I don’t get it.”

Stacie hesitates. Then she sighs, her stomach twisting. “I have a reputation I guess.”

“Oh.” Emily eases down on the bed next to Stacie, crawling to lean against the wall and crossing her legs under her.

“Do you know what I mean?”

“I think so.” Emily purses her lips. “You like everyone.”

Stacie feels her lips twitch in a smile. “Sort of.”

Emily looks at her seriously. “You’ve had a lot of boyfriends. And girlfriends, maybe.”

She bites her cheek to keep from laughing. “No, I think it’s the fact that I _haven’t_ had a lot of them.”

“Oh. Okay.” Emily stares for a long second, frowning. “No, actually I don’t get it.”

Stacie smiles fully. “Do you know how to thumb wrestle?”

“Yes.”

“Can I thumb wrestle you?”

Emily tilts her head to the side, then holds out her hand. “Yeah.”

Stacie takes Emily’s fingers in her own, gliding her pointer finger across Emily’s palm. Then she cups Emily’s hand and starts moving her thumb back and forth over their hands. “One two three four. I declare a thumb war.”

Emily stares down at their hands in concentration. She jabs her thumb toward Stacie’s, but Stacie moves it to the left, avoiding being pinned.

“Have you ever had sex, Em?”

“Nope.” Emily jerks her arm as Stacie almost gets her thumb, but Stacie holds tight, and Emily tries to jab her thumb down again.

“Well, I have.” She likes the feeling of Emily’s fingers on her palm, tight and warm. “A lot.”

Emily makes another attempt to conquer the battlefield of their hands, but Stacie’s thumb retreats. “Oh. Okay.”

“It’s why I have a reputation. People say things about me because I like to have sex.”

“That’s dumb. Are they jealous?”

Stacie chuckles. “Maybe. Or maybe they’re just mean.”

“Probably both,” Emily says seriously. “Some people can be really mean.”

“They can,” Stacie agrees. “But I want you to promise me something.”

“What is it?” Emily looks up at her, distracted from their thumb war. “I think I should know what it is before I promise.”

Tenderness beats a pattern against Stacie’s pulse. “Yeah. You should. Promise me that if anyone ever calls you a freak, you don’t let that change you.”

Emily stares, her eyes meeting Stacie’s dead on. “What do you mean?”

“Just… Just be the person you want to be. And don’t _not_ be that person because someone says something about you.”

“Okay,” Emily agrees. “How could I be someone else, though? That doesn’t make sense. I’m just me.”

“You are. And I love that.” Stacie squeezes Emily’s fingers once before pinning her thumb against Emily’s. “And I got you. One two three fourfivesixseveneightnineten. I win.”

Emily yelps in surprise, then laughs when Stacie lets go. “What do you win? I have…” Emily looks around. “Peas and algae. You can’t have Tupac so don’t ask.”

Stacie softens. Emily makes her feel worthwhile and whole. She wishes she could express that without sounding strange. “I don’t win anything,” she says. “Just hanging out with you is enough.”

Emily scoffs. “That’s a lame prize. You can have a dollar.”

When Emily gets off her bed to get her wallet, Stacie flops back on the pillow, her entire body shaking with giggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry again for the wait... as always im at emilyjunk.tumblr.com. come say waaazzzzzupppppp


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> plot stolen from the movie, random plot i made up, and plot deviation. also relationship developments. poly bellas up in hurr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> due to popular demand as voted on my tumblr, here's an update of this

Being a superhero is pretty awesome, but Emily thinks it would be more awesome if that meant she got super-eating powers.

She pouts forlornly at her box of Hawaiian pizza (that she gets all to herself) and wonders if it would just be _too_ much to eat another slice. When her stomach bubbles uncomfortably, she decides it’s probably not a good idea. She wonders if the location of the Crystal under Pizza Hut affects the pizza at all. That’d be a good science experiment. She’ll have to ask Stacie.

She looks across the circle to where Stacie’s chewing on the last nub of some pizza crust and talking to Chloe and Beca. They’re all laughing at something, but Emily must have missed the joke. They’re pretty, Emily thinks. All of them. She likes when Beca and Stacie smile, almost as much as she likes when Aubrey smiles. She thinks they all could use with more happiness in their lives.

Over on the other side of the room, Aubrey’s watching them thoughtfully too, but Emily wonders if she’s really listening. She looks deep inside herself, the way she gets when she’s thinking too much about things that make her upset. As she’s watching, Aubrey frowns and looks up, her eyes catching Emily’s.

She smiles slightly at Emily, almost absentmindedly, before her lips twist again. “How’d you do it, Em? How’d you morph?”

The others stop talking amongst themselves and turn to look at Emily, too.

Emily shrugs. “I don’t know. It just happened.”

Aubrey sighs. “What are you guys thinking about when we’re trying to morph?”

Stacie tosses her uneaten crust in an empty box and lets her hand reach in front of her dramatically. “You must shed your masks to wear this armor,” she imitates Zordon’s overused speech. Emily laughs.

“Think only of each other,” Emily adds, trying her best Zordon impression. “And the morphing grid will open to you.”

“Wow that was really good,” Stacie grins at her.

Chloe hums thoughtfully. “Well maybe we can’t really think of each other because we don’t know each other.”

Emily frowns. “I know who all of you are.”

“No, like, what makes us tick, you know?” Chloe chirps. “Like our _essence_.”

Stacie snorts. “Okay, Chloe.”

“No, I’m serious,” Chloe says. “Let’s do this. For real.” She faces the center of their makeshift circle on the living room floor. “I’m Chloe. And I’m a Power Ranger.”

Even Aubrey smiles at that. “Hi, Chloe.”

“Hi, Chloe,” they all repeat.

“Truth,” Chloe says. “I’m a super-super-super senior. Everyone thinks I keep changing my major because I’m wishy-washy or too stupid to finish a subject. But the truth is, I love this place. I don’t want to leave.” She pauses, frowning. “My family, they uh, they died in a car crash the year before I came to college. My mom and my dad and my younger brother. And they were my best friends, they were the best. I was scared because without them, I didn’t think I’d have anything. But then I came here, and I know it sounds cheesy, but this place saved me. I found myself again here. And being with you guys, this is the happiest I’ve been since I lost them. I think being with you guys is good for me.”

Chloe gives a shrug, her voice emotional and thick. Emily aches for her. She knows that feeling.

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, Chloe’s right. Let’s do this, let’s tell our secrets. Like, I’ve got a secret.”

“You do?” Aubrey raises her eyebrow.

“Mhmm,” Emily smiles. “I like country music. In fact, I love country music.”

Beca chuckles. “Nooooo.”

“Yep, it’s so fun. It makes me wanna ride a horse. Except I could never ride a horse, I can’t even drive a car.” She laughs at herself and pulls her knees up to her chest. “And um, when I listen to it, I don’t miss my mom as much. That’s why I was at the pool that night, because I missed my mom. She used to be a swimmer here, but she died, too. She’d take me here to watch the swim meets when I was little, and you know, she used to just get me, which as you’ve probably noticed, isn’t something that happens a lot. Sometimes I thought going to that kind of stuff with her was all I had. But then, you know, going down there and training with you guys… it’s just as good.”

Chloe points at her. “So why’d you blow it up?”

Emily pouts. “That wasn’t me, that was Beca.”

“Dude!” Beca shakes her head. “That was Stacie and her weird chemicals.”

“What were you doing with explosive chemicals anyway?” Aubrey asks her.

Stacie leans her head back against the couch cushions behind her. “You know, that’s a long story. Skip me, okay?”

Emily eyes her curiously, then turns to Beca. “Okay, Beca, what about you?”

Beca snorts. “What about me? You know I could just say anything right now and you guys would have to believe me?” They all stare at her and she sighs, fidgeting with her untied shoelace. “Kay well, I’m not like you guys. I uh, hate this place. My dad, he’s a professor here, and the fact that I have to see him all the time really blows. My parents, they like, _suck_ , you know? They weren’t like yours. They don’t get me at all. When I was growing up, they fought so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. The only thing that helped was music. It became my life because it was the only thing that made sense. I wanted to, I dunno, get away from this place, go somewhere - L.A., anywhere - and just let myself live in the music. But instead I’m stuck here.” Beca laughs bitterly. “Unless of course, we die next week. There’s always that.”

“Me, too,” Aubrey says. “I hate this place. It was my last choice, my safety school, but it was the only one I got accepted to. My father, he’s very traditional. He went to Yale, went into the Armed Forces, and he always wanted me to follow in that direction, but I wasn’t good enough. So now I’m here, feeling like I’m just passing my time, trying to get good enough grades to transfer somewhere else.”

Aubrey leans back on her hands. “The crazy thing is I actually started to kind of like it here. And it took training with you guys to realize that I spent my whole life thinking I wanted something because my dad told me to want it, and the truth was that I didn’t want it at all. I don’t know what I want. And it’s like Beca said, maybe I’ll never find out. Maybe this is almost the end.”

There’s a long moment of silence where they all think about that. Emily feels anxiety twist in her chest. She doesn’t want to die.

“Do you guys think Gail really will kill all of Barden and the world just for this Crystal?” Stacie eventually asks. “It just seems so… sci-fi.”

“I dunno,” Chloe says. “But I think this Power Ranger business is for real. I mean, Emily morphed. You saw those Zords. So if all that is real, why wouldn’t Gail be?”

“I think it’s real,” Emily agrees. “And… I think we have to stay here and protect the Crystal. Even if we defeat Gail. We have to, we’re the Power Rangers.”

Beca scoffs. “Are we, though? I mean, when this is all said and done, the five of us will just what? Live here together? Forever? We’re not Rangers. Are we even friends?”

There’s a heavy pause as they all stare around at each other.

Then Aubrey nods.

“Yeah,” she says. “We are.”

//

“Keep your arms shoulder width apart. Now try to keep your legs straight.”

Emily looks at Chloe through her legs, head upside down. “Why is this called downward facing dog? I’m not a dog. Does it look like I’m a dog?”

Chloe laughs. “You look like a dog stretching.”

“Oh.” Emily inhales deeply. “My butt is way in the air.”

“Yeah. And it’s a very cute butt.” Chloe pokes Emily’s butt cheek.

“Hey!” Emily topples over on the ground, laughing. “Excuse me.”

Chloe raises an eyebrow, grinning. “You’re excused.”

She eases down on the ground next to Emily. Stacie and Beca had left a little while ago and Aubrey went to bed, so it was just the two of them left. Emily had asked Chloe to teach her some yoga poses and they’d mostly just been goofing off, the pizza boxes still littered on the floor around them.

Chloe looks at Emily lying there, body still shaking with giggles. Emily isn’t like anyone she’s ever met. Emily has never judged her, had never said anything mean about anyone, as far as Chloe can tell. She takes everything at face value. She’s a very trusting soul, and Chloe likes that about her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Chloe blinks, coming out of it. She shrugs. “How long ago did your mom pass, Em?”

“Oh.” Emily hums. “Nine years, two months, a week, and 3 days ago.”

“It doesn’t really get easier does it?”

Emily stares at her. “Missing her? Or... them?”

“Yeah.”

Emily tilts her head to the side, seriously considering the question. “Maybe it does and doesn’t. At first it was just surprising she wasn’t there. And that shock hurt a lot. Then it felt deeper. Like an ache inside all of me that might never go away. Now I’m just sad because I always want to talk to her about things. I wanna tell her about the Power Rangers so bad. But I can’t. Sometimes I talk to her, but I don’t know if she can hear me.”

Chloe nods, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I still miss them so much, but sometimes I forget they’re gone. And then I remember and feel guilty for forgetting.”

“I don’t think they’d want you to feel guilty. If they were your best friends, they’d want you to be happy. I’d want you guys to be happy if I died. Well not happy that I died, but happy even though I died.”

“Yeah,” Chloe murmurs softly. “I get it.” She looks at Emily curiously. “We’re your best friends?”

“Sure,” Emily says easily. “I don’t think you can have a superhero team that’s not best friends.”

Chloe smiles. “So you really think we’re superheroes huh?”

“Yeah it makes sense.” Emily frowns. “Superheroes always have family who have died.”

Chloe’s heart aches. “That’s sad.”

“It’s very sad,” Emily nods. “I’m sorry about your family, Chloe.”

“I’m sorry about your mom.”

“I think…” Emily wraps her arms around herself carefully. “I think it doesn’t make up for anything, but I think we’re a family now. And even though it doesn’t make me miss her less, it does make it better. I think that’s why training with you guys is almost as good as being with her. Because we’re family now too.”

The thought fills Chloe with warmth. She nods, thinking about their new family. “I don’t think Beca would say we’re a family,” Chloe says after a minute. “She’s a little prickly.”

“Prickly…” Emily laughs. “That’s a weird way to describe it. You’re right, though, she’s like a pufferfish. When it sees something scary it puffs up and it’s got these prickly spines that jut out to scare you away.”

Chloe chuckles. “That sounds about right.”

“Mhmm. They’re poisonous, but,” Emily shrugs, “in some places they still eat them. If you know how to cook it right and search out the poison then it’s this really rare, yummy snack. I think Beca’s like that too.”

Chloe smirks. “A snack?”

“No,” Emily shakes her head, completely missing Chloe’s joke. It makes Chloe laugh. “Maybe she’s prickly if she’s scared, but if you understand her and treat her right then she’s something rare and special.”

Chloe blinks. Her mouth opens, then shuts.

“I like fish a lot,” Emily continues. “People make more sense when they’re fish.”

Chloe smiles at that. “I love you, Em.”

Emily beams back. “I love you, too.”

They smile at each other, then Chloe gasps. “Oh my God. Wanna learn fish pose?”

“There’s a fish pose?!”

//

Beca groans as she walks into the library.

She’d just finished a midterm (that she probably failed, thanks Ranger training from hell) and came to finish an essay she has due tomorrow. She really wants to be in her bed, icing her most recent injuries and taking a very deep nap.

Instead she’s in the library.

She sighs as she walks through the main level, searching for a place to sit. All the tables have at least one person there, and Beca has never been one to want to share with a stranger, but as she makes her way into a more secluded area, she sees a familiar face among the studying students.

As she watches, though, a feeling of apprehension washes over her.

Emily’s got her eyes narrowed in concentration, the sleeves of her soft blue sweater rolled to the elbows. In front of her, a map of the campus is spread out, taking up a majority of the table. Emily’s meticulously organizing her pens in front of her by color, making sure they’re not crooked. The table must have a divet in it, though, because one of them keeps rolling across it every time Emily sets it down. She patiently retrieves it and starts again.

Beca’s apprehension comes in the form of a guy, sighing every time Emily’s pen rolls across the table. Finally, he pushes out of his chair and stomps over.

“Look, girl, smart people would’ve realized after three times that that pen wasn’t gonna stay. Why don’t you knock it off?”

“I like them like this,” Emily easily replies. “I like them straight.”

The guy rolls his eyes, flicking one off the table. “How’s that for straight?”

Beca has to wonder why she’s always walking in on things like this. Like, really, why her? First Stacie and that girl with the iced coffee, and now this?

“Hey,” she says walking up. “What is this, high school? Back off dude.”

“Why don’t you mind your own business, huh? Or just tell this bitch to move. I sit here every day and listen to this shit. Something wrong with her or what?”

Beca glares. “Did you come out of the womb with one brain cell or did you just miss the 3rd grade memo that bullying is fucked up. Fuck off.”

Emily’s looking between them with wide and eyes and she can feel the other people in the area starting to stare, but she holds her ground.

“I’m just trying to study in peace, Jesus.” He throws his hands up and storms back to his table before packing up his things and stalking off.

Beca scowls, throwing her backpack down and sitting across from Emily at the table.

“I didn’t mean to bother anyone. I didn’t realize it was annoying.” Emily picks her pen up from the ground, clutching it between her fingers. “Sometimes I don’t realize things. My brain doesn’t work like that.”

“You weren’t bothering anyone. They all have headphones or would move away if you were.” Beca shrugs, pulling out her notebook. “Dude was just a dick. Probably failed a midterm and wanted to take it out on someone.” She looks at Emily. “There’s nothing wrong with you, so fuck that guy.”

Emily sets the pen down gently on the table. It rolls slightly and she snatches it, looking around.

Beca watches her for a moment. “Stacie told me you like to play music for your fish.”

“Mhmm.” Emily perks up. “He comes out of hiding sometimes when he likes it. At least I think that’s what it means when he comes out. Maybe he’s just hungry.”

“Would you say he has good music taste?”

Emily thinks for a second. “Pretty good. The only questionable song he came out of hiding for was ‘What Does the Fox Say?’, but other than that, it’s pretty good.”

Beca grins at that, pulling out her laptop. “If I gave you one of my mixes would you play it for him and see what he does?”

“Your mixes?”

“Yeah, I like, mash-up songs sometimes. I want to be a music producer. So maybe if he likes them then I’ll know they’re good enough to include in an application or something.”

Emily beams. “He would be honored to be your test subject, Beca.”

Beca chuckles, plugging in her USB to her laptop. “Okay, cool. Can I borrow a few of your pens?”

Emily passes them over. While she transfers some of her stuff over to the USB, she makes a little doodle on the notebook. When the download is done, she passes them both to Emily. Emily cocks her head to the side, looking at the doodle, the lightning bolt, colored red, pink, blue, black, and yellow. _WE SHOULD START A BAND_ written in bubble writing next to it.

Emily laughs. “I love it.” She gives Beca this look, soft and happy, that makes Beca’s insides melt. Emily is the nicest person she’s ever met.

“Cool. My gift to you then.”

“Oh.” Emily nods to herself. “Pufferfish,” she whispers.

Beca doesn’t know what that means, but it must just be an Emily thing.

They stare at each other for a moment. Then Emily folds up the doodle and the map, puts away her pens, and gets up. “I gotta go, Beca. But I’ll play your music for music for Tupac as soon as possible and get back to you, okay?”

“Okay, Em, whenever.”

“See you tonight.”

And then she’s hurrying away. Beca watches her go until she’s out of the room. Then she sighs.

She’s got an essay to write.

//

Bio used to be Stacie’s favorite subject, but she’s come to hate it the past few months.

Well, the subject’s still okay, but the class itself is the bane of her existence.

Everyone’s always staring at her. Which would be fine, by the way, she’s used to that. Like hello, have you seen her? But they’re not staring at her extreme good looks. No, they’re staring because they _know_.

It doesn’t bother her. Okay, it _shouldn’t_ bother her.

Usually, she’s fine. Usually, she can lift her chin high, straighten her spine, stare them back in the face.

Today she’s tired, mentally and physically exhausted. From school, from Rangers, from all of _this_.

Maybe it’s started to chip away at her, just a little. Maybe she’s finally over it.

Maybe she’s just tired of not having anyone on her side.

She shifts as a body slumps into the seat next to hers. Usually it’s empty, at least for the past few months. The lecture’s not big enough for every seat to need to be taken. She keeps her head down, not wanting to look at who it is or communicate in any way. When she hears the small intake of breath, though, the sign they’re going to speak to her, she breaks.

“You’ll probably regret sitting there,” she snaps, bitchy and rude because if someone’s sat there just to give her a hard time or ask if it’s true, then she doesn’t give a fuck.

“Probably not,” chirps a familiar voice.

Stacie finally glances up in surprise. “God. I forgot you were in this lecture.”

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “We’ve had Bio together for the past four semesters.”

“Yeah. I know.” Stacie sighs. “Just have had other things on the mind.”

“Mmm. Understandable.” Chloe gives her a compassionate smile. It makes something in Stacie crack a little bit.

“Someone’s def gonna give you shit after this,” Stacie says, thankful for Chloe’s company, but not wanting to have to apologize. “So fair warning.”

Chloe chuckles. “Everyone who knows me already gives me shit. Super-super-super senior perks. You’d think in college nobody would care, but it’s not big enough here, I guess.”

“I guess.” Stacie frowns. “What they think, though. It’s true. That email --”

“I deleted it.”

“You read it, though.”

Chloe looks at her for a long moment. “I like the new TA better anyway.”

Stacie doesn’t know what to say, but she’s saved by their Professor starting the lecture anyway. When a late straggler makes their way through the row in front of them, giving Stacie a long side-eye over his shoulder, she lifts her chin and sends his stare right back.

//

The campus is dark and empty as Beca walks home later that night.

She’s returned to the library after Ranger training, intent on finishing the last page of her essay. She knew if she went back to her dorm she’d fall asleep without finishing it.

Now it was just nearing midnight and as far as she could tell, she was one of the only people out and about.

It didn’t worry her, though. She could take care of herself, even before she got these new superhero powers.

She hurries over the quad, lost in her own thoughts. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t notice the shadow following her, not until she’s stepping under a tree and a stream of water drops into her face.

She frowns, looking up.

And almost screams.

A body drops from the tree, knocking her to her back on the ground. She gasps as fingers trace over her skin, the body hovering in the air above her.

“Do you know who I am?” Gail asks, her voice hushed.

Who else would it be? Who else would divebomb Beca from a tree, dressed in green tatters and holding a long golden staff. Her jetblack hair is knotted around her face, and she smells like low tide. Beca knows who she is. And God it makes her so fucking pissed. “Yes,” she hisses.

Gail’s long nails poke into her cheeks. “I used to be like you once. So pretty. Innocent…” She sneers. “Are all the Rangers on Zordon’s new team as young as you?”

“Fuck off,” Beca spits out, pushing Gail off of her. She uses her super-strength power to flip them up, forcing Gail’s back into the tree she fell from.

Gail’s laugh is like nails on a chalkboard. “Delightful!” She flings Beca back to the ground and Beca screams as she slams into the grass. “Have you morphed yet?” Gail rolls them over before strong-arming Beca against the tree again. “Trick question! If you had this would be a very different conversation.”

Gail has her pinned against the tree, her hands in Beca’s hair, and Beca grits her teeth. “Fuck… off,” she grunts.

Gail cackles. “Ah. The Yellow Ranger. Should I kill you, Yellow? I killed the Yellow Ranger before. And,” she leans in close to whisper in Beca’s ear. “I loved it.” Gail gives her a maniacal grin and Beca scowls. “Oh, you want your armor so bad. Let’s make a deal. I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”

She releases Beca, but Beca feels frozen, watching in horror as Gail’s eyes glow green. Emerald spikes grow from Gail’s back, a crystalline armor that makes Beca sick. She acts before she can think, pushing with all her might to slam Gail into the grass, her fingers around Gail’s neck.

“No, stop! You’re hurting me! Please, you’re so strong!” Beca squeezed harder until Gail’s wheezes turned to laughter. “Just kidding!” She flings Beca back against the tree and Beca hears it splinter. She gasps. “You’ve got spunk little Yellow. I see myself in you. Shame I’ll have to kill you. But… all I need to know is the location of the Zeo Crystal. Tell me and I’ll spare your life.”

“I don’t know it,” Beca gets out, Gail’s fingernails scratching at her chin.

Gail hums quietly, an exaggerated pout taking over her face. “Sadly, I believe you. Tomorrow,” she continues, “I am going to destroy this sad little college town. If you want to live, you will find the location of the crystal and come tell me. Meet me at that quaint little lake on the other side of the campus. You have until dawn.”

She throws Beca back on the ground. Beca sees stars, her vision swirling. When she comes back to, Gail is gone.

//

Aubrey can’t sleep. For a multitude of reasons, the most pressing being the fact that they still haven’t morphed and the end of the world could happen tomorrow.

Then there’s the unopened email from her dad that just came through. She can’t make herself read it. She doesn’t know what it is or how she’ll respond. She’s slowly been coming to the realization that she might just stay at Barden, and she’s not sure how to tell him that.

She also doesn’t know how she might tell him she could die -- they could all die -- tomorrow.

It’s not exactly something you bring up in an email.

A quiet _tick_ outside her open window jolts her out of these thoughts. She looks over as a shadow passes across it. And then a body is pushing through the tight space.

She jumps out of bed, her hands flying into a defensive stance as the intruder lands lightly on their feet.

Stacie blinks at her, eyes roving over her. “Easy babe. It’s just me.”

Aubrey sighs, dropping her hands. “What the hell? How did you get _up_ here? Why didn’t you come to the door?”

“I’m a superhero.” Stacie deadpans. “And I didn’t want to wake Emily.”

“Oh but you could wake _me_ just fine?”

Stacie shrugs, her hands clenching in and out, fiddling with the zipper of her pink jacket. She’s nervous, Aubrey realizes. She lets out a deep breath.

“What’s wrong?”

Stacie looks around, searching for something. Words maybe. Then she sits down on Aubrey’s bed. Aubrey follows, pulling her legs underneath her.

“I think I’m the reason we can’t morph,” Stacie finally says. “I haven’t exactly been honest. I was in the pool that night with all that stuff because I need to pull off some kind of… brilliance. The truth is I’ve been trying to apply to graduate programs, but I can’t get any references from the Professors here, so I need something spectacular to make up for it.”

Aubrey hesitates. “Because of that email?”

“Yes. Because of that email.”

“Well that’s not _true_ , though. They know that right?”

Stacie clenches her eyes shut before looking at Aubrey again. “It’s true.”

Aubrey tries to think back to the email. Sent from an anonymous account, school-wide. She remembers reading it and deleting it. “You slept with your TA so he’d give you a better grade?”

“It wasn’t really over the grade. But I can’t say that he didn’t grade me easier because we’d slept together. He probably did.” Stacie pauses. “It wasn’t exactly a one-time thing. And this girl in my lecture found out. She’s the one who sent the email. I can’t get an ounce of respect from this faculty anymore. I had to quit the cheer team. Everyone thinks I’ve gotten all my high grades from sleeping with Professors.”

“Anyone who’s talked to you for more than a minute can see you’re smart enough to get the grades. That’s preposterous.”

Stacie huffs. “That’s not the point. I ruined that guy’s life. He got fired and kicked out of his grad program. All because what? He was cute and I wanted to flirt with him?”

Aubrey frowns. “No, okay. It’s a two-way street. He could’ve turned you away.”

“Does it matter? I’ve always just… slept with who I wanted and not cared about the consequences. Boys, girls, I slept with a married doctor once. I’ve just done whatever or whoever, not because I necessarily even wanted to, but just because I _could_. And now, it’s like, that email went out and I can see in everyone’s eyes what I am. How selfish and horrible and awful I am.” Stacie’s voice cracks, her hands pushing against her legs like she could push everything away. “I hate this.”

Aubrey circles her fingers around Stacie’s wrist. “Then start over. Maybe you’ve done some awful things, but that doesn’t make you an awful person. If you wanna give up sex, give it up. If you wanna sleep with whoever, then sleep with whoever. If you want to just… be more conscientious, then _do_ that. Just be the person you want to be.”

Stacie exhales shakily, taking Aubrey’s fingers. “Honestly? This is cheesy, but…” The corner of her lip twitches upward. “The person I want to be is who I am when I’m with you guys. Or maybe I just want to be the kind of person Emily thinks I am.”

Aubrey laughs lightly. She gets that. “She sees the best in everyone. I want to be the person she thinks I am, too.”

“You love her.”

“Of course I do.” Aubrey lies back on her pillow, pulling Stacie with her. She stares up at the ceiling, remembering. “We met in the dorms. Roommates. I worried because I’m very… particular about things.”

“Type-A.”

Aubrey smiles. “Yeah. But we worked because we both respect boundaries. She has a lot of boundaries. Sometimes even with boundaries things can agitate her. The first time… I didn’t know what to do. She’s always so positive and happy, then suddenly she wasn’t. She was suddenly very upset and I couldn’t figure out why. She was clenching her fingers too tightly around her wrist and giving herself bruises. Then she wrapped herself tight in a blanket and stared at me. So I just… I started singing. That’s what my mom used to do for me when I was young and upset. And it took a bit, but eventually Emily was fine again. She told me it helped and that she appreciated me.” Aubrey pauses, feeling a thickness in her chest. “That was the first time someone ever said that to me.”

Stacie squeezes her fingers. “I appreciate you. I appreciate everything you do for us. All of this Ranger stuff… It’s a lot of pressure. You don’t have to do it alone, although I’m sure you could. You’re kind of awesome that way.”

Aubrey rolls her eyes. “Are you hitting on me?”

“No, but I can if you want me to.” Aubrey turns on her side to see Stacie grinning. “In light of recent discussions, though, full disclosure, I definitely tried to kiss Beca the other day.”

Aubrey snorts. Then she softens. “I kissed Emily.”

Stacie reaches out to push Aubrey’s hair behind her ear. “Honestly, I totally wanted to kiss her the other day, too. She tried to give me a dollar for beating her in a thumb wrestling match and I swear I fell in love.” When Stacie smiles, Aubrey’s heart flips. Stacie’s smile is extra beautiful when it’s genuine. “I think I’m a little in love with all of you. I don’t know how to not be.”

“I think that makes a lot of sense.” Aubrey’s heart has suddenly picked up, Stacie’s hand still in her hair. “And I think I’m going to kiss you. If that’s alright.”

“I think that’s totally fine, but no funny business, Ms. Posen.”

Aubrey would roll her eyes, but they’re already closing as she leans in closer. “Shut up,” she murmurs, then captures Stacie’s lips between her own.

Stacie exhales, a hum of appreciation getting caught in her throat. It makes Aubrey’s whole body heat up. Stacie’s lips are soft and confident, even as their kisses remain slow and easy. Aubrey lets her fingers rest on Stacie’s hip, shivering when they touch Stacie’s warm skin.

Stacie gently rolls on top of her. “This how you kissed Em?”

Aubrey laughs into Stacie’s mouth. “We did the Spiderman kiss.”

“Hot,” Stacie husks. “Wish that were me.”

Aubrey’s body shakes with repressed laughter. “I’m sure she’d love to recreate it with you.”

“Maybe I’ll ask h--” She cuts off as both of their phones beep at the same time. Stacie pulls back and they frown at each other questioningly. They both reach for their phones.

Aubrey heart drops into her stomach. Her eyes meet Stacie’s, still pressed on top of Aubrey in the darkness.

“Beca?”

“Beca,” Stacie says, rolling off of Aubrey. “Get Emily. Let’s go.”

Aubrey doesn’t need to be told twice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry for the wait. thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rangers face gail when they're not ready and then they also face consequences so rip everyone's fave bb. chapter is 100% plot stolen directly from the movie. it's THE chapter... if u know what chapter im talking about. if you havent seen the movie then uh... tw for temporary death i guess. spoiler abt the temporary part but oh well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the penultimate chap (minus epilogue). so see u for the Final Battle next time.

Beca doesn’t breathe easy until she hears the telltale clinking of the fence as someone climbs over it. The adrenaline hasn’t left her body since she was ambushed and it’s making her jittery and anxious, hiding in the shadows of the crater.

She doesn’t come out until she hears the skitter of feet on concrete, Stacie’s voice calling across the pool. “Chloe. You got that text too, right? Where is she?”

Beca finally pops out from behind the wreckage they created that night this all started. It feels so long ago, but it hasn’t even been two weeks. “I’m here.”

The four of them stand in a loose half-circle in front of her. Emily looks like she just woke up, fingers rubbing at her eyes, but the rest are alert and staring at her.

“Look,” she says, fingers clenching helplessly next to her sides. She pulls back the collar of her jacket, showing them where Gail had scratched down her skin, leaving a trail of long dark cuts that Beca’s sure will be scars even with her their fast-healing powers. “Gail attacked me tonight on my way home. She’s real and she’s fucking insane. She nearly killed me.”

They all step closer, eyes wide. “Ow babe, what the hell?” Stacie reaches forward, moving Beca’s hair away from the drying blood.

Beca purses her lips. “She was trying to get me to join her. Said she’s gonna destroy this place tomorrow at dawn and to bring her the location of the Zeo Crystal and she’d spare me.”

“Oh no,” Emily whispers.

“So this is real then?” Chloe murmurs. “This is the end. She’s going to just… kill everyone.”

“Of course this isn’t the end,” Aubrey snaps. “Where did she say to meet her?”

Beca shrugs. “That lake on the other side of campus.”

“Well, it’s obvious, then,” Aubrey says, looking around at all of them. “Let’s go.”

They all stare at her. The adrenaline has settled and Beca feels a wave of exhaustion take over her body at the thought of facing Gail again. She looks at Stacie and they make uncertain eye-contact. She shakes her head.

“Okay, really?” Aubrey scoffs. “No one?” She looks at Emily, but Emily’s face is blank.

Beca shifts. “Come on, Aubrey. We’re not even Power Rangers yet. You didn’t see her. We can’t do this.”

“I think we should go back to Zordon,” Emily says at last. “He’ll know what to do.”

Aubrey scowls. “Listen, the only reason Zordon wanted us to morph was so he could come back to life.”

“What makes you say that?”

Aubrey’s face hardens and Beca suddenly knows that whatever Aubrey had talked about with Zordon the day Emily morphed was more than the _nothing_ she claimed it to be. “He told me.”

“Wait…” Emily peers around at them. “So, this all was just a lie?”

Aubrey looks at her feet, then back at Emily. “Yeah, Em. I’m sorry. I think it was. We failed at this. We can’t morph. We were being delusional about being a team of superheroes.” She hesitates, then that hardened look of determination breaks over her face again. “Look, I never wanted to come to this place and I know some of you feel the same, but I don’t want to just sit here and watch it die. I can’t just _do_ that. It’s not right. So superheroes or not, I think we should go and do the one thing that was asked of us and kill Gail. How could we not try?”

They all pause, thinking. Finally Stacie lets out a laugh. “You know this a horrible idea, right?”

“Yeah,” Aubrey nods. “The worst. So don’t make me go alone. Who’s with me?”

Beca can still feel Gail’s fingers on her and it makes her pissed. She sticks her finger in the air. “Yeah. I’m down. Fuck that bitch.”

Stacie grins over at her. “Me, too.”

“I’m in, obvi.” Chloe sticks her hands in her pockets, shrugging. “I can’t let her destroy this place.”

They all look at Emily. Her face is impassive, her gaze moving between all of them. Beca knows she’s turning over all the options in her head. Finally she nods, meeting Aubrey’s eyes. “We have to. It’s the right thing to do, even if we know we might not be ready. It’s like Miles Morales. A leap of faith.”

Beca softens, nodding. “She’s right. What’s up, Danger.”

Beca thinks the smile Emily gives her in that moment could convince her to do anything, no matter how crazy.

“Great,” Aubrey says, looking around at all of them, her eyes determined. “Then let’s go.”

//

They don’t say much as they make their way across campus. The night is chilly, but Chloe feels herself start to sweat as they get closer to the little campus lake.

As they walk, Emily’s quietly murmuring the fighting tips ALPHA had repeated to them a million times under her breath.

“I got your back,” Chloe says to her as the lake comes into view. “We can do it.”

Emily gives her an uncertain look. “Nobody’s gonna die, right? I mean, we’re the heroes, we can’t die. Oh but they all got dusted in _Infinity War_. No they’re gonna come back to life in _Endgame_. It’s fine. We’re fine.”

“Breathe, babe,” Stacie murmurs. “We got this.”

As they approach the lake, nobody is in sight. Aubrey leads them to the large supply shed on the edge of the dock where the crew team keeps their gear. The door swings open with a creak.

“That’s not creepy at all,” Beca whispers.

They tiptoe inside. Chloe grabs an oar she sees out of a bin, wrapping her fingers around it. The others all have picked up various tools as weapons as they creep forward.

“Where is she?” Emily asks. “She said to come here right?”

Beca watches almost in slow motion as a stream of water splatters on the ground of her. “Oh shit.” She looks up with a shudder.

Stacie screams as a figure flies from the rafters of the shed, crashing in the middle of their small circle. They all fly back from the force of it. Chloe’s back hits the ground and she lets out a gasp. Gritting her teeth, she pushes herself back up.

“Right on time,” Gail laughs. Her voice itches under Chloe’s skin, like a fork scraping over glass. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

“Literally lady, just fuck off already.” Beca throws a wrench through the air, but Gail ducks and it lands in the shadows with a metallic _thunk_.

Gail smirks. “This again, Yellow? Ah. Let’s play, shall we?”

She steps toward Beca and Chloe rushes forward, swinging out with the oar. Gail doesn’t even look at her, just slices backward with her staff. It hits Chloe in the chest and she slams to the ground. Next to her, Stacie lets out a cry as she too gets hit and flies through the air.

Chloe rolls over in time to watch Aubrey land a punch in Gail’s side, but Gail thrusts out with the staff and Aubrey goes tumbling down. As Chloe gets up, Beca and Emily catch the tail end of the staff and go flying backward. They crash into the walls of the shed. The distinct cracking of wood is background noise as Chloe kicks out at Gail, but Gail is too quick -- she counters Chloe’s kick with her forearm and swings around with her own leg to trip Chloe up under her feet.

She hits the ground for a third time, just to see Gail slam the end of her staff into the ground. A sonic wave of air thrusts from the epicenter of the impact and all five of them are forced several feet backward.

Chloe’s head hits the ground and she sees stars. Her vision goes black.

She groans, hears something whizzing in her ear Then her body is hoisted into the air, her back slamming against something hard, her mind only half-conscious.

When she opens her eyes, she can’t move and thinks she’s paralyzed. Then she realizes she’s tied up, a cocoon of boating rope holding her in place on the outside of the shed, a small gap of water between the end of the dock and where she’s tied. Her feet dangle above the lake and she tries to wrench herself free, but she can’t.

On her right, Emily is wiggling, similarly tied up. When she meets Chloe’s gaze, her eyes are wide and afraid. Chloe looks to her left and sees the rest of them in the same situation.

Beca lets out a grunt of frustration and spits at the ground. It lands on the dock at Gail’s feet where she’s pacing in front of them.

“Baby Rangers, all tied up,” Gail sneers.

“Usually I’m into stuff like this,” Stacie huffs from Chloe’s other side. “But this a major turn off.”

Gail’s pacing comes to a halt in front of Aubrey. She caresses Aubrey’s face and Chloe shudders. Aubrey, however, doesn’t react except to narrow her eyes.

“Ah, their fearless leader, the Red Ranger.” Aubrey does react then, slamming her forehead into Gail’s face. Gail juts back with the force, but apparently isn’t too bothered. She laughs with cold amusement. “Well I guess you’re not entirely disappointing.”

Aubrey grunts, eyes glaring into Gail’s.

“Oh, look at you all. Trying to figure out my plan. I’ll just tell you! Yellow has led you to your deaths.”

“Again. Fuck off,” Beca snarls.

Gail continues like she didn’t hear. “I am going to kill you all, one by one, until you tell me. Where is my Crystal?”

Aubrey halts her movements, completely stilling. She breathes, staring at Gail. Chloe’s insides twist when Aubrey’s voice comes out, the over-even tone of someone trying to hide something. “I don’t know where it is.”

Gail laughs. “I know you don’t. But we both know who does.” Chloe’s eyes widen, looking at the rest of them. “But who could it be?” Gail walks down the line of them, from Aubrey at one end to Emily at the other. “Eenie, meenie, miney… Blue.”

Chloe whips her head to the right, staring. “Em.”

Emily doesn’t say anything, just looks at Gail with her wide, brown eyes.

“Aw. So loyal, so pure of heart.” Gail pokes Emily in the chest with a long fingernail. “Tell the class what you know, Blue! Where is my Crystal?”

Emily furiously wiggles at her ropes, looking at Chloe next to her in fear. Chloe wrenches again, desperately wanting to be free.

“You can tell me now, Blue, or you can tell me after I kill all of your friends. Which will it be? Tell me now, kill your friends, tell me now, or kill your friends?” Gail shrieks out a laugh. “Let’s start with Black.”

Gail juts forward with her staff and Chloe has no time to react before she feels it pierce into her neck, her breathing cutting off. She gasps, a slicing pain cutting through her, a hot knife of sharp, dry agony on her face. She yells, her vision going fuzzy at the edges.

She barely hears Gail’s voice over her own screams. “She dies in three… two… one…”

Chloe wrenches her eyes shut, preparing for the end.

“OKAY!” Emily screams. “Okay, please. Just don’t hurt my friends. Please.” Chloe gasps air into her lungs as the pain suddenly disappears. She opens her eyes with a groan, looking weakly at Emily. Emily has tears in her eyes. “It’s at a dining establishment,” she whispers.

“Where?” Gail demands. “What does that mean? What’s it called?”

Emily’s voice trembles. “It’s at Pizza Hut.”

“Pizza Hut?” Chloe manages to choke out.

Gail ponders this for a short moment. “Pizza Hut. This is a very special place. It must be for the source of all life itself is buried there.”

“Yes,” Emily nods frantically. “Very special.”

“Yes…” Gail drags her hand across Emily’s cheek. “Thank you, Blue, for being so very weak.” She walks back down the line, away from them, and Chloe almost sags with relief, but then Gail speaks again. “Zordon would lose all respect for me if I didn’t kill you. At least one of you, anyway.”

Then she spins back around, pointing her staff at Emily. Another sonic blast of green energy shoots through the air, and the ropes binding Emily to the shed pull the slightest bit loose. She falls lightning-quick, splashing into the water below them.

Chloe watches in horror, helpless, as green light grips the rope, halting it in its tracks to send Emily to the bottom.

She screams. “EMILY!”

“AUBREY WE HAVE TO HELP HER!” Stacie yells from next to her.

Chloe uses all her might to push against the rope tying her, but it doesn’t budge.

“You’re not ready to kill me,” Gail muses over her shoulder as she walks away. “You’re not worthy.”

Then she thrusts her staff at them again and finally, finally the ropes around Chloe loosen.

She falls to the dock with a moan.

//

Stacie doesn’t think, just moves. “EMILY!” She throws the loose ropes off of her and pushes to her feet. She’s at the rope attached to Emily in under a second, using all her strength to tug it back up. Aubrey grabs behind her and together they manage to slowly pull Emily back onto the dock.

They all fall to their knees next to her, desperate for her eyes to open.

They don’t.

Chloe’s next to her, moving Emily’s wet hair away from her face. Stacie unzips Emily’s blue jacket to get to her neck, checking for a pulse.

“Em?” She pushes at Emily’s neck, praying for the flutter of a heartbeat. “Emily, please.” Her throat feels thick and she can barely see, wet tears clouding her vision. She lets out a sob. “EMILY! Wake up!”

“She’s gonna be okay, right?” Beca peers down, her voice squeaking. “She’s fine. She has to be fine.”

“Come on, Em, you got this,” Aubrey whispers, grabbing Emily’s hand.

Stacie holds her breath, trying to be steady, searching for the slightest movement of life under Emily’s skin, but she doesn’t find any. Her fingers still on Emily’s neck, trembling. She sniffles and her tears drop onto Emily’s chest.

“She’s dead.” She takes Emily’s cheeks between her palms, staring at the passive look of nothingness on her face. She lets out a harsh sob, the tears coming faster, and presses her forehead to Emily’s. Helplessness streaks through her. She gasps in a breath, sitting back on her heels. “She’s dead,” she repeats.

In her periphery, Stacie barely registers Aubrey standing up, taking a shaky step back. Beca stomps a few steps away, murmuring and endless stream of _fuck fuck fuck_ under her breath.

Chloe grabs Stacie’s hand, her own tears streaming down her face.

Beca storms back, kneeling down next to them. She touches Emily’s neck, too, as if Stacie was mistaken, but Stacie doesn’t mind. She’d double check, too, wouldn’t believe it if she hadn’t felt for herself. Beca gasps out another _fuck_ , resting her hand on Emily’s stomach.

Her fingers hesitate, then pull something from the pocket of Emily’s jacket. Her phone and a piece of wet, crinkled notebook paper. Stacie watches her unfold it, careful not to tear the wet paper. It’s a doodle. A lightning bolt, thick bubble letters around it. _WE SHOULD START A BAND_.

Beca moans weakly, her face falling in her hands.

“Pick her up,” Stacie murmurs at last. When none of them move, she spins around. “Help me pick her up!”

Chloe and Beca immediately grab one of Emily’s limbs, starting to lift.

“Aubrey, come on,” Chloe says gently, tugging at Aubrey’s fingers. But Aubrey is frozen, just staring, her face distraught.

Stacie meets her eyes and Aubrey blinks rapidly. Then she nods and moves into action.

Together, they pick Emily up, and begin to carry her home.

//

Aubrey doesn’t know how they got Emily back to the ship.

She doesn’t know anything right about now. She’s a numb shell, full of determination to just _move_. If they can walk across campus, haul Emily through the hole in the fence, into the pool, down the crater… if they can jump into the water, Emily sandwiched between her and Stacie, swim her down to the ship, get her in front of Zordon, then maybe everything will be alright.

Maybe Emily won’t be de --

“Emily?” ALPHA gasps as they carefully set her on the ground.

Aubrey storms into the chamber as soon as she lets go of Emily, her face turned toward the wall. “Do something,” she demands, staring up at Zordon. “There must be something you can do for her.”

Zordon looks down at her, disappointed and sad. “I told you that you were not ready.”

“Zordon, please help us,” Aubrey pleads. “ _Please_.”

“There’s nothing I can do for her,” Zordon murmurs. “We were both reckless with our teams.”

Aubrey finally feels the hot sting of tears in her eyes. She looks down, grief landing heavy in her stomach.

How could this have happened? Of all of them… why _Emily_? Why couldn’t it have been her instead?

“I’m sorry,” Aubrey whispers. She turns back to Emily, making her way back and looking down at Emily’s blank face. She almost doesn’t look like Emily at all. She looks stiff and unmoving. Emily had never spent one moment stiff and unmoving in all the time Aubrey knew her. She was a ball of energy, radiant and beautiful. “I’m sorry,” she repeats. “She’s dead because of me.”

Stacie shakes her head, staring at Aubrey with a fierce determination. “No. It was all of us.”

“No,” Aubrey chokes out. “I pushed it. And as usual, I made the wrong decision, out of fear or anger.” She clenches her fists, looking around at them. “I was just so angry. All the time. That we failed at this. That _I_ failed at this. At _everything._ I just wanted to do one thing right.”

“Aubrey,” Chloe murmurs, but Aubrey shakes her head violently.

“Emily… she’s a great person. The best of us. And she loved being a Ranger. She loved _us_.” Beca sniffles, wiping her eyes, and Aubrey’s heart pangs. With sadness. And love. For all of them and for Emily. “I’m sorry, Em,” she whispers. “I would trade my life for yours if I could.”

She sits down on the steps next to Emily, grabbing her hand.

Stacie stares at her. “Maybe she traded her life for ours,” she says eventually.

“She probably did,” Chloe says. “She told me we were her best friends. Her family.” If Aubrey had been capable of smiling then, she would have. She’s sure Emily did say that. “I would trade my life for you guys, too,” Chloe continues.

“So would I,” Stacie immediately agrees.

Beca sniffles again, clearing her throat. “Yeah. Same.”

Aubrey nods. “Me too.”

Stacie steps down the stairs and stands in front of them, her eyes sad but determined. “It’s just the four of us now. The truth is that whatever we’ve said to each other, whatever else has happened, it doesn’t matter. This,” she pauses staring around at the three of them left in front of her. “This is the only thing that matters.”

“She’s right,” Beca grunts. “We have to keep going.”

“It’s what Emily would want,” Chloe says. “For us to keep going.”

Aubrey squeezes Emily’s hand tighter. She doesn’t want to let go, but they’re right. They need to keep going. She gently releases Emily’s fingers and stands up.

“The four of us,” she says. “Together.”

Then -- with a burst of light and a whoosh of air, the morphing grid comes to life.

“Zordon!” ALPHA screams. “The morphing grid! It’s open. Now is your time! Step through! Do you see it?”

Aubrey’s mouth falls open and she takes a step forward.

“Yes,” Zordon says excitedly. “Yes I see it.”

“Step through!” ALPHA repeats.

They all step up to the grid, watching as it whirls around. The wall Zordon lives in pulses with static, flashes of electric light zapping up and down it.

“What’s going on?” Chloe yells, bringing her hand up to shield her eyes from the brightness.

Zordon yells, a low, gruff sound of force, and then his face disappears from the wall.

The grid shuts down as quick as it opened, plunging them back into low-light. Aubrey looks around.

“Zordon? What happened? Master Zordon?” ALPHA frowns at the wall.

“Where is he?” Stacie asks, her voice hushed and worried.

“He must have stepped through the grid!” ALPHA says.

Beca whirls around, searching. “ALPHA, where’d he go?”

“I don’t know! This has never happened before.”

Then, with a loud _boom_ , Zordon’s face pushes back against the pixelated wall, his head floating as it was before.

“Zordon!” ALPHA screams. “Why didn’t you step through? That was your only chance!”

“I know,” Zordon nods somberly. “But only one can come back.”

Behind them, there’s a choking sound, the gurgling of water.

Aubrey spins around, eyes zeroing in on Emily’s body, once lifeless, now moving as she rolls on her side, coughing up water. She groans and sits up.

“Emily?” ALPHA gasps.

Stacie, Chloe, and Beca run to her side, but Aubrey turns back to Zordon, afraid to hope, afraid to feel.

Zordon looks at her, expression serious. “There can only be one Red Ranger. Aubrey, this is your time. This is _your_ team.”

 She can hear the hushed whisper of Emily’s voice behind her and tears prickle at Aubrey’s eyes. “Thank you,” she murmurs.

When she turns around, there’s Emily, standing. Hunched and weak. But standing and alive.

//

Emily wakes unable to breathe and with water in her lungs.

She coughs, her chest burning, and water shoots out of her mouth. She groans, rolling on her side, and coughs up more liquid.

“Ugh,” she mutters, sitting up.

Her whole body aches. She blinks her eyes open, only to see her friends staring at her with their mouths open. She’s in the spaceship, just off to the side of the morphing grid. She frowns. The last thing she remembers is plunging into the water at the lake, and then a black nothingness.

Did she die?

Her friends are at her side in a second, patting her over. Stacie’s palms cup her cheeks and tilt her chin up, looking Emily in the eyes. “Em?”

Emily nods, standing up and leaning in to Stacie. She groans, glancing from Beca to Chloe and back. “Uh. Did I die?”

“No,” Stacie says at the same time Beca says, “Yes.”

“A little bit.” Chloe squeezes her shoulder. “But you’re back now.”

“You brought me back to life?” Emily nods weakly. “I told you guys we were superheroes.” Beca laughs, her forehead falling into Emily’s chest. Emily smiles. “Hey Pufferfish. We should start a band.”

Beca looks at her, eyes soft, but her face twists painfully. “Don’t do that again, nerd.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Chloe and Stacie won’t stop touching her cheeks and for once, Emily doesn’t mind. Their skin is warm where hers still feels cold. She doesn’t really want to think about that.

She looks up as Aubrey appears in front of her, eyes wide and teary. It makes Emily pout. She hates to imagine Aubrey thinking she’s dead.

“Aubrey.” She steps away from Stacie’s side, careful not to fall on her shaky legs, but then Aubrey’s holding her up, her arms around Emily like a tight blanket.

“I got you,” Aubrey says against her neck. Emily leans into her, turning her nose into Aubrey’s hair. Aubrey squeezes her tight before letting go and letting Emily lean into her shoulder. “I love you, Em. I hope you know that. I love you so much, okay?”

“I know,” Emily says. “I love all of you guys.” They all pile in for a hug, Emily at the center. She looks around at them. “But we have to go to Pizza Hut, right?”

“What?” Chloe laughs, her fingers pushing Emily’s wet hair off her neck.

Emily pouts. “Not for pizza. I wish it was for pizza though.”

“Yeah,” Aubrey nods. She meets all of their eyes, holding Emily’s for an extra long second. “Okay, let’s try this.”

Emily smiles, stepping away. She slowly moves onto the blue footprints, the others doing the same on their own platforms.

Aubrey smiles at her from across the way, this light, free grin Emily rarely sees. “Hey Em. Know what time it is?”

Emily looks down at her watch, but it’s not working. It stopped working after the first time they jumped into the water and she just never took it off. “No, I’m sorry, my watch stopped. But I can find out?”

Aubrey just shakes her head and laughs as she finally steps onto her footprints. As the morphing grid in front of them whirls to life once again, they make eye contact. Aubrey’s smile makes her feel as alive as she’s ever felt.

“No,” Aubrey says, holding her hands out in front of her as the grid flashes dramatically. “It’s morphing time.”

**Author's Note:**

> hmu emilyjunk.tumblr.com
> 
> more for this au found at emilyjunk.tumblr.com/tagged/prau
> 
> thx for reading ya boobz


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